American businessman Zak Brown has implicitly targeted the French-British team Alpine, which is rumored to be in negotiations with Mercedes F1 for the sale of a quarter of its shares.
The head of the British Formula 1 team McLaren, American businessman Zak Brown, denounced on Wednesday the financial ties between rival teams that could undermine the “integrity of motorsport”. During a press conference at the McLaren F1 headquarters in southern London, Brown did not explicitly mention the French-British team Alpine, which is rumored to be in negotiations with Mercedes F1 for the sale of a quarter of its shares.
“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 our fans away faster than anything else,” warned the 54-year-old American millionaire who has been the CEO of McLaren for almost ten years.
“This applies to anyone and everyone, to the ‘A-B teams’, to any co-ownership,” continued Zak Brown, alluding to the fact that a single owner can have a major team “A” and a smaller team “B”, like the Austrian Red Bull with its two teams Red Bull Racing (where Dutch Max Verstappen and French Isack Hadjar race) and Racing Bulls.
“A real problem in terms of integrity,” said the American leader who had already criticized in 2024 the fact that a Racing Bulls driver had helped the premier team Red Bull Racing to score points to the detriment of McLaren.
“If we talk about performance, we can indeed maximize these performances when two teams depend on the same group. It’s a real problem in terms of the sport’s integrity… and a serious issue for its fairness,” emphasized Zak Brown.
When questioned, he did not directly mention the ongoing discussions, as reported by the press, between the German-British team Mercedes-AMG F1, from the manufacturer Mercedes-Benz, and Alpine F1, 76% owned by Renault and 24% by the New York investment fund Otro Capital. The Mercedes-AMG engine not only powers its own F1 team, based in northwest London, but also the British teams McLaren, Williams, and since this season the French-British Alpine, whose headquarters are split between Viry-Châtillon near Paris and Enstone, northwest of London.
