2024-01-18 07:04:08
(Motorsport-Total.com) – Is the FIA currently setting the wrong priorities? At least to this day, McLaren boss Zak Brown is still surprised about the investigation that the World Automobile Association initiated against Toto Wolff and his wife Susie at the end of last year.
Does AlphaTauri really give itself an unfair advantage against McLaren and Co.?
“We have never spoken to anyone about the Toto/Susie situation. We are big supporters of the F1 Academy and are happy to be a part of it. I have known Susie for a long time, she has a lot of integrity. So we have no concerns.” , Brown clarifies.
The FIA closed the investigation after just 48 hours, which many observers noted with great astonishment, and the McLaren boss believes there are more important issues that should be addressed.
A big point, for example, is the cooperation between Red Bull and sister team AlphaTauri, which Brown has already criticized in the past. “As far as I know, AlphaTauri is moving to the UK, which I think will be beneficial for both teams,” he believes.
“So these A/B teams and the co-ownership, which is a whole different level of A/B teams, is a huge concern for us and for the health of the sport, the fairness of the sport,” warns Brown, pointing to this that the situation in Formula 1 has changed.
Brown warns of an “unfair advantage”
Red Bull has had two teams, Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri, which was still called Toro Rosso back then, since the 2006 season, i.e. for almost 20 years now. So why does Brown and others view the issue so critically now of all times?
At that time, Formula 1 was “in a different situation,” explains Brown, emphasizing: “There was a big gap between people like us, who had huge budgets, and smaller teams. I think that today everyone is at the upper limit or operated pretty close to it.”
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And with new things like the budget cap or the handicap system, Brown says, teams could “gain an unfair advantage” through close cooperation, and I think that’s something we need to address quickly, he says.
“I believe this is a serious issue for the fairness of the sport and for the fans. That’s why it’s not allowed in pretty much all other major sports. And I would like us as an industry to focus on this before the formula 1 gets back to where it used to be,” he warns.
Formula 1 could become “unbalanced” because, in the worst case, some teams would play “according to different rules” than others. Therefore, one must intervene before such conditions arise.
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