23 January 2024 , 17:05
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Damon Hill has come out in support of Zak Brown after the McLaren chief called for common ownership to be banned in Formula 1.
Brown made his feelings on the matter clear in an open letter penned last month. It was a clear attack on Red Bull, which is the only company that owns more than one F1 team - the championship-winning Red Bull Racing outfit and strugglers AlphaTauri.
In a strongly-worded statement, penned after Red Bull signalled its intention for the two teams to work as closely as the rules allow going forward, the McLaren chief executive called for F1 to "strengthen the values of fairness and competition" by outlawing common ownership.
The American wrote: "As we look ahead to negotiating the next Concorde Agreement to unite the governing body with the teams and commercial rights holders, we should prioritise some of those rules that currently impact the impartiality between competitors.
"For example, most other major sports prohibit the ownership of two teams within the same league because of the obvious potential damage that it does to competition. It's an unhealthy situation because it impacts decisions made both on and off the track. Whether it's a case of having access to more data, sharing components/personnel, or even having influence over a strategic vote, it's not in the spirit of the regulations.
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"It's important to stand up for independence, competition and fairness. I'd like to see changes in the regulations to ensure that in future, they stop influence spreading from one team to another through strategic alliances and especially through ownership. Formula 1 should be true to its brand, and every team - except power units - should be totally independent of each other.
"I believe Formula 1 fans universally believe in fairness in competition and a level playing field, and would reject any actions that compromise the true spirit of competition within Formula 1. Part sharing of information, shared ownership models, and strategic alliances within the sporting fabric of Formula 1 will only serve to undermine the fans' belief in fair and fierce competition."
Damon Hill lent his support to Zak Brown's criticism of Red Bull's two-team ownership in F1 (@96f1champ/Instagram)
McLaren chief Brown wants F1 chiefs to outlaw common ownership (Getty Images)So far, Brown's campaigning against the Red Bull situation has been something of a one-man crusade - at least in public. But he has now been backed by Sky Sports F1 pundit and 1996 world champion Hill, who posted on social media that he "agrees 100 percent" with the McLaren chief's position.
Mercedes technical director James Allison, however, did not take the opportunity to lend his team's support to Brown's cause. Instead, he put his faith in F1's current rules around the illegal sharing of information or resource to ensure that everything continues to be done in a legal manner.
He said: "The rules are very tight about not passing on anything that could be regarded as intellectual property from one team to another. The way that rule is written is very broad and very powerful, and it pretty much makes any communication not permitted. If two teams have a strong relationship with each other, it can only really be a strong commercial relationship. It cannot be a strong technical or a strong sporting relationship, because the rules forbid that."