The regulations concerning team B, that is to say currently Racing Bulls compared to Red Bull Racing, was recently discussed during the F1 committee.
The FIA and most teams still want to strengthen the legislation so that two teams belonging to the same owner (Red Bull in this case) cannot take advantage of its situation in Formula 1.
It was Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren, who had put the subject on the table a few months ago. And the American has just had water in his mill: Laurent Mekies went from Racing Bulls to Red Bull without any compulsory notice!
Andrea Stella, the director of the team, was questioned about this in Hungaroring. Would it be favorable to the introduction of such notice periods in the case of sisters? As always, the answer is measured with Stella but the words well chosen.
“It is an interesting and fairly complex subject. You have to be careful not to approach it in a too simplistic way,” warns Italian.
“McLaren has certainly raised in the past the question of the independence of the teams. This is a question that should be addressed in order to consolidate and balance the discipline, so that any completely independent team is protected against the advantages that the mutual dependence of two associated teams could generate.”
“Currently, at McLaren, we are convinced that the regulations in force and its application already constitute an effective means of alleviating the potential risks linked to the links between teams, such as the passage from one team to the other overnight.”
“But after a recent example (Mekies), we believe that this subject must be the subject of additional constructive discussions in the future, in order to determine whether it is possible to approach the question of the independence of the teams in a more innovative way than the current situation.”