The boss of the British Formula 1 team McLaren, American businessman Zak Brown, denounced on Wednesday the financial links between competing teams which would undermine “the integrity of motorsport”.
During a meeting with the press, including AFP, at McLaren F1 headquarters, south of London, Brown did not explicitly target the Franco-British Alpine team which would be in negotiations with Mercedes F1 for the sale of a quarter of its capital.
“All 11 F1 teams should be as independent as possible, because I believe there is a high risk that the integrity of our sport will be compromised, which would turn away our fans faster than anything else,” warned the 54-year-old American multimillionaire, chief executive of McLaren for almost a decade.
“This applies to anyone and everyone, to + teams A-B +, to any co-ownership,” continued Mr. Brown, alluding to the fact that a sole owner can own in F1 a large “A” team and a smaller “B”, like the Austrian Red Bull and its two teams Red Bull Racing (where the Dutchman Max Verstappen and the Frenchman Isack Hadjar race) and Racing Bulls.
The American leader had already denounced in 2024 the fact that a Racing Bulls driver in the race had allowed the leading Red Bull Racing team to win points to the detriment of McLaren.
“If we talk about performances, we can actually maximize these performances when two teams depend on the same group. This is a real problem in terms of the integrity of sport (…) and a serious question for its fairness,” insisted Zak Brown.
When questioned, he did not directly cite the ongoing discussions according to the press between the German-British Mercedes-AMG F1 team, from the manufacturer Mercedes-Benz, and Alpine F1, owned 76% by Renault and 24% by the New York investment fund Otro Capital.
The engine manufacturer Mercedes-AMG equips not only its own F1 team, based in the northwest of London, but also the British McLaren, Williams and since this season the Franco-British Alpine whose headquarters are shared between Viry-Châtillon near Paris and Enstone, northwest of London.
