McLaren has ‘big concerns’ over Red Bull, AlphaTauri partnership،
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has raised concerns over the relationship between Red Bull and its junior team, AlphaTauri, as “something that needs to be resolved in the future”.
Red Bull has owned two F1 teams since the mid-2000s: the company bought the Jaguar team for the 2005 season, before buying the Italian company Minardi the following year and renaming it Toro Rosso.
Toro Rosso was renamed AlphaTauri, after fashion brand Red Bull, in 2021, but still operates from the same headquarters in Faenza, Italy.
The world champions recorded the most dominant F1 season in history this year, and by early July they had stopped work on the dominant RB19 and started on its successor.
AlphaTauri, in comparison, improved its car until the last race of the year.
Brown, whose McLaren team became Red Bull's closest competitor in the second half of the season, wants the partnership between the two teams to be examined.
In an interview with Autosport, Brown said: “The million dollar question none of us know is what time they [Red Bull] turn off this year's car?
“We know we have outperformed the others in the development race, and we know we have closed the gap to Red Bull, but what none of us know is: does Red Bull 'stopped and we're just catching up, or were they still in development.?
“We also have big concerns about the alliance between AlphaTauri and Red Bull. I think this is something that needs to be resolved in the future.”
“So I still think the sport still has a way to go to make sure everyone is truly independent.”
What the Red Bull-AlphaTauri partnership will look like in the future has been a major topic of discussion since the death of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz in October 2022.
Mateschitz's son Mark, who owns 49% of the company, has resisted internal pressure to sell AlphaTauri, saying his father's ambition had always been to have two teams on the grid.
Red Bull has spent much of the year in talks with various companies, including ESPN's JP Morgan and Hugo Boss, over a naming partnership, but so far no deal has materialized.
AlphaTauri will race with Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda in 2024.
