24/01/2024
NEWS STORY
Whilst Zak Brown fears the threat posed by the Red Bull teams collaborating, James Allison insists that the current regulations make such a move impossible.
The days when Toro Rosso could use the previous year's Red Bull are long gone, whilst further changes led to the end of such things as (t)Racing Point, whereby the team now known as Aston Martin, effectively worked hand-in-hand with Mercedes.
Though Red Bull bought what was Minardi at the end of 2005 and subsequently enjoyed a somewhat incestuous relationship with its 'sister' outfit, regulation changes soon meant that the two essentially went their separate ways, though the Faenza outfit continued to be the test bench for drivers, not to mention the eventual switch to Honda power units.
However, recently the ties have clearly strengthened, with the Italian outfit moving its aero department to Milton Keynes and its 2023 contender using various Red Bull components, not least the rear suspension.
Whilst his own team did a superb job in turning its season around, at McLaren late last year, Zak Brown expressed unease that as it cruised to the title Red Bull stopped all development of its car to switch focus to its 2024 contender, whilst AlphaTauri continued to develop the AT04 right up to the final races.
"The million-dollar question that none of us know is how early did they turn off this year's car?" Brown told Autosport in December. "We know we've outperformed the others in the development race, and we know we've closed the gap to Red Bull but what none of us know is did Red Bull stop, and we just caught up, or were they still developing?
"We have some big concerns over the alliance between AlphaTauri and Red Bull," he admitted. "I think that is something that needs to be addressed in the future. I still think the sport has a way to go to make sure that everyone is truly independent."
At Mercedes, James Allison isn't overly concerned.
"I'm not entirely sure what the nature of the relationships between those two teams is, but I am clear on what the rules are," he tells Autosport. "And it is that other than the very limited part of the car where you are permitted to supply parts, and therefore a certain amount of technical data alongside those parts, in every other respect the rules are very tight about not passing on anything that could be regarded as intellectual property from one team to another.
"The way that rule is written is very broad and very powerful, and it pretty much makes any communication not permitted," he adds.
"If two teams have a strong relationship with each other, it can only really be a strong commercial relationship," he continues. "It cannot be a strong technical or a strong sporting relationship because the rules forbid that.
"In the past it was more open, and the relationship that Mercedes enjoyed with the team that is now Aston Martin, at the time that was a relationship that permitted much greater freedom than it does today. In response to that relationship, the rules were tightened up substantially to mean that you cannot really have a technical or a sporting relationship.
"If it turns out that there is one, that is something that would cause unhappiness. So, there is not much mileage to seek a close relationship with another team from a technical point of view because it is not allowed."
Indeed, in reaction to Brown's fears, the FIA's single-seater chief, Nikolas Tombazis, while confirming that further guidelines in terms of teams sharing information are to be introduced, was keen to play down talk of collaboration.
"We check teams that are in close proximity to each other a lot more closely than we check completely independent teams, exactly to make sure this thing doesn't happen," he told Autosport.
"That is a concern," he admitted. "It has been a concern not only between the two teams mentioned, but also among other pairs of teams.
"We believe that AlphaTauri specifically does have quite different aerodynamic solutions to the other company, and we don't think there's any sign of any direct collaboration," he insisted. "Clearly, they are working hard and they have made a step forward. But I don't think it can be said it's due to collaboration."