The 2023 Formula One season saw a shift in the Red Bull philosophy surrounding the purpose of its junior team. In years gone by it has been accepted AlphaTauri (previously Toro Rosso) would be merely a lower order team to bring one the Red Bull young drivers. Of course Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen along with Daniel Ricciardo all came through the ranks, but the team is looking to be more competitive in the future rather than merely a feeder programme for Red bull talent.

The recruitment of Nyck de Vries and Daniel Ricciardo demonstrates the era of merely employing young drivers in the Red Bull B team is over. Dr. Marko further explained the team would be moving a number of its functions to the UK where recruiting top people was easier than in Italy.

 

 

Red Bull to build Uk AplhaTauri base

Ferrari boss, Fred Vasseur, admitted that even the pull of the famous Scuderia at times is not enough when they are looking for new people who have to relocate their entire families and their lives from England.

Long standing F1 Writer Joe Seward has recently been suggesting that the AT Bicester base will not be expanded but a new site in Milton Keynes is currently under construction. This has raised some concern that there will be an unfair advantage for Red Bull should this close collaboration be allowed.

Over the years since the team was bought from Minardi, the Faenza squad has ploughed its own furrow apart from the mother ship. Yet during the early years they ran Red Bull designed chassis which was allowed under the regulations.

But in time the Italian based team took on its own identity even running Ferrari engines while Red Bull were contracted to Renault.

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Haas F1 boss questions Red Bull/AT relationship

The FIA regulations allow F1 teams to buy a specific list of ready made components from others, but these are strictly monitored and many of the operations must be completely independent of any other team. 

When Haas joined Formula One win 2016 they were the ultimate “assembly only outfit.” They outsourced their chassis design and then bought the remaining required components from Ferrari. Independent teams like Williams were perturbed by this given Haas F1 joined the sport and enjoyed immediate success.

Yet Haas were doing nothing wrong but ironically now it is their team boss who has questioned the strengthened relationship between Red Bull and the soon to be newly named AlphaTauri.

Gunther Steiner has called for a debate over whether Red Bull should be allowed to own another team suggesting this relationship may well step over the lines concerning collaboration.

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However, Red Bull appear unconcerned by this issue but Joe Seward theorises the recent withdrawal of Red Bull’s planning application for a new wind tunnel, is because the team have found a site in Milton Keynes which will facilitate both this and the new Alpha Tauri HQ.

The journalist then continues to speculate that the 2030 Concorde Agreement will ban the owning of one team by another, and that Red Bull will be given time to find a buyer and separate fully from their junior team.

The FIA representative Nikolas Tombasis has now commented on the matter and revealed the FIA have more stringent tests for teams who have any kind of association, not just Red Bull and AT.

“We check teams that are in close proximity to each other a lot more closely than we check completely independent teams, exactly to make sure this thing doesn’t happen,” Tombasis told AutoSport. “That is a concern.

“It has been a concern not only between the two teams mentioned, but also among other pairs of teams.

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Of course if the design concepts and aero philosophy are closely mirrored between two teams, this would require even closer monitoring in case there was an illegal sharing of ideas or a common component development path.

“We believe that AlphaTauri specifically does have quite different aerodynamic solutions to the other company, and we don’t think there’s any sign of any direct collaboration,” Tombasis asserts

“Clearly, they are working hard and they have made a step forward. But I don’t think it can be said it’s due to collaboration.”

Towards the end of the season AlphaTauri brought a number of upgrades to their car which thus far was bottom of the constructors’ table. This was following the announcement AT was to collaborate more with Red Bull.

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AlphaTauri huge progress raises eyebrows

Having scored points just four times all season, between rounds 18-22 AlphaTauri were in the points four times in five races, racing eyebrows inside the F1 paddock. The team lifted themselves from 10th to 8th which was worth ten of millions in prize money and jus failed to overhaul Williams by three points.

Tombasis admits the FIA will target teams like Red Bull, AT, Haas and Ferrari suggesting this was “one of the tricky parts of policing teams.”

“We do need to audit and make sure that all of these teams are well segregated. And we will be issuing some further guidance quite soon to just provide further information to the teams about how they can convince us none of that is happening.

“We’re not underestimating the challenge and it is one of the difficulties we have.”

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Aston Martin “pink bull” example

Yet anyone who has watched Formula One over the past couple of years will remember the “pink bull” design from Aston Martin who were accused of illegally using information about how the Red Bull car was designed – and copying it.

So its not just teams who have an association that require scrutiny, but those who appear independent but may have parallel paths of development running.

The FIA has previously suspected certain teams may be trialling different design directions only to simultaneously converge on a common solution. If this is through collaboration, “That is obviously heavily illegal,” says Tombasis who reveals the FIA follow the trails of design to ensure no team makes a “magic leap” to a wing solution.

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“I don’t think there’s something like that happening at the moment. We have checked and we have a process to check. Is it easy? No, I’m not saying it’s easy, it’s always sort of a challenge.”

“You can have two teams collaborating, one is in the UK, and one is in Argentina, and if two teams wants to communicate against regulations, have Zoom calls and have the engineers chat with each other, that is quite feasible.

“We don’t watch people’s day-to-day movements, and nor is it our intention to do so. These pairs of teams get more frequently criticised for collaboration just because they have common ownership or whatever, but it is not the only pair of teams that could collaborate. You could have two independent teams who decide to mutually gain by helping each other.

“I don’t think that’s happening, but I’m just saying that our tools to prevent this happening don’t need to be just linked to physical components that are sold by one team to the other.”

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Steiner concerns unjustified

Tombasis is clearly defying the paddock paranoia over Red Bull and AT collaborating illegally, and makes it clear even forcing Red Bull to sell their junior team would change little from an audit perspective.

Whilst Gunther Steiner is bitching about the two teams owned by the same entity, he is maximising the opportunity to design as little as Haas can, whilst buying expertise and components from outside sources.

Then you have Williams who plough ahead with outdated kit due to years of underinvestment, trying to create their own designs and realise their own solutions to the problems set by the F1 design regulations from year to year.

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