American businessman Zak Brown implicitly criticized the French-British team Alpine, which is reportedly in negotiations with Mercedes F1 to sell a quarter of its capital.
The head of the British Formula 1 team McLaren, American businessman Zak Brown, denounced on Wednesday the financial links between competing teams that could undermine “the integrity of motorsport.” During a press conference at the McLaren F1 headquarters in south London, Brown did not explicitly mention the Alpine team, which is said to 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, as I believe there is a high risk that the integrity of our sport will be compromised, which would turn our fans away more quickly than anything else,” warned the 54-year-old American millionaire, who has been McLaren’s CEO for almost ten years.
“This applies to everyone, to all teams, to any joint ownership,” continued Zak Brown, referring to the fact that a single owner can own a large “A” team and a smaller “B” team in F1, similar to the Austrian Red Bull team and its two teams: Red Bull Racing (where Dutchman Max Verstappen and Frenchman Isack Hadjar compete) and Racing Bulls.
In terms of integrity, the American executive had already pointed out in 2024 that a Racing Bulls driver in a race had helped the premier Red Bull Racing team to score points at the expense of McLaren.
“When we talk about performance, we can indeed maximize these performances when two teams are part of the same group. This is a real problem in terms of the integrity of the sport (…) and a serious question for its fairness,” emphasized Zak Brown.
When asked, he did not directly mention the ongoing discussions reported in the press between the German-British team Mercedes-AMG F1, part of the Mercedes-Benz manufacturer, and Alpine F1, 76% owned by Renault and 24% by the New York investment fund Otro Capital. Mercedes-AMG not only supplies engines to its own F1 team based in northwest London but also to the British teams McLaren, Williams, and, as of this season, the French-British Alpine team, whose headquarters are split between Viry-Châtillon near Paris and Enstone in northwest London.
