The debate around Red Bull owning two Formula One teams is set to surface once again. Christian Horner had been a staunch defender of the Red Bull energy drinks empire’s right to continue as owners of two of the ten F1 teams, but in an ironic twist of fate the Austrian overlords in sacking Horner may have opened the door to a ban on two team ownership.

McLaren’s CEO Zak Brown raised the subject first back in 2023 and come Bahrain the following year, the then Red Bull team principal set out the context of the defence for the energy drinks organisations ownership of two F1 teams.

“One has to take a look back at the history of where this started and why that ownership is as it is now,” said the British boss. “Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley approached Dietrich Mateschitz back in 2005 to acquire what was then the Minardi Formula 1 team which was perennially struggling and on the brink of bankruptcy. Dietrich stepped in, acquired the team, shored it up, and then invested significantly in their Faenza facilities in Italy.”

 

 

 

Horner went on to explain the vital importance to F1 of the Red Bull investment in two teams, recalling the mass exodus from the sport back in the naughties. “We then faced the financial crisis in 2008, as other manufacturers chose that opportunity to leave the sport – I think four of them left at that point – but Red Bull remained resolute and continued to support both teams through that difficult period.”

With Horner sacked and the Racing Bulls boss immediately promoted from the sister team, the FIA have sought to tighten the rules surrounding personnel transfers between the jointly owned teams. Unlike every other F1 outfit, Red Bull didn’t have to wait for a lengthy gardening leave period to secure the services of Mekies, given both he and Horner were contracted by the Austrian parent company.

The FIA are now considering new regulations to govern the transfer of personnel between the two Red Bull owned teams which will include a period of garden leave mandated in section F, which covers operational aspects of the sport which fall outside the technical and sporting regulations.

Following in his CEO’s footsteps, Andreas Stella now raises questions over the two team ownership model, insisting rules should be in place to ensure the independent operation of both Red Bull Racing and the Racing Bulls. “This is an interesting topic and quite complex,” Stella replied to a question from paddock journalist Thomas Maher. “We have to be wary that we don’t approach it in too simplistic a way.”

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The McLaren boss recognises that his team have been involved in the debate previously over team independence. “It’s a question that should be discussed as part of putting the sport in a very solid, fair position so that any team that operates in a fully independent way is protected against the benefits that can be exploited in being dependent as teams from one another.”

The Italian in his inimitable manner continues saying that “For now, we at McLaren trust that the regulations in place and the way they are enforced are already a valid way of mitigating any potential risk associated with connections between teams, like changing from one team to the other from one day to the next.”

Clearly like Zak Brown, Stella believes there should be further discussion on the topic and indeed a change in the regulations as he concludes: “But definitely, we think this is a topic that can be part of constructive conversations in the future to see if there’s a way of approaching the matter of team independence in an evolved way compared to where we are at the moment.”

With Mateschitz and Horner now gone, two big characters and personalities are no longer in situ to defend the two F1 team ownership practice from a position of experience. Ecclestone is also out of the frame and the new owners of the commercial rights have no history of “needing” someone to prop up the grid with a second team.

 

 

 

 

Last year Zak Brown waxed lyrical on the Red Bull situation claiming in an interview with Sky F1, “We have some work to do around the rules. “I think the A-B team is a real problem moving forward. I think co-ownership, you don’t really have that in any sport. And I think that provides a lot of conflict of interest.”

Brown is suggesting there is a significant opportunity for the two teams to break the Chinese walls set up by the FIA, which enforces each team developing a car each season using its own intellectual properties. Yet for years, there have been F1 collaborations with Ferrari using Sauber for many years as the team to place its junior drivers.

In 2016, with the arrival of the Haas F1 team, the relationship with Ferrari was a close as the FIA regulations allowed. The American owned outfit bought as many components as allowed in the rules from Ferrari, and then sub-contracted their chassis design to Italian company Dallara. Haas even have a satellite office based out of the headquarters of the Scuderia in Maranello.

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Brown continues suggesting the days of F teams coming and going each season is over and with the budget cap the smaller teams are less likely to go bust. This of course was the reason the Red Bull empire acquired both Jaguar and Minardi, however Brown believes this legacy is no longer appropriate.

“And I think any time you have an entity that owns two teams, or an A or B relationship, I think it really starts to compromise the integrity of sporting fairness. That’s something that really needs to be tackled,” added the McLaren CEO. Brown has suggested that the 2030 Concorde agreement which legally binds the teams, the FIA and FOM together, should address the Red Bull situation and allow the practice of anyone owning more than one F1 team.

And with the passing of time leaving few who remember the days of F1 in crisis and losing teams regularly, the loyalty to Red Bull may be on the wain in the minds of those at the FIA and in Formula One Management, owned by Liberty media.

 

 

 

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