FIA keeps a close eye on Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri

The FIA is keeping a close eye on Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri. Competitors fear there is information sharing between the two teams, but the FIA stresses that there is no such thing.

Formula 1 is trying to make the sport fairer for all participants. For example, there is a budget cap, and teams are only allowed to spend a limited number of hours in the wind tunnel and CFD to develop their cars. Again, that time is less for the top teams than for the teams lower on the grid. Still, there seem to be gaps in this system.

Red Bull's competitors fear that the collaboration between Red Bull and AlphaTauri is very close. As champions, Red Bull can spend little time in the wind tunnel but could benefit from the extra wind tunnel time AlphaTauri has, according to competitors. AlphaTauri can test parts which Red Bull no longer needs to check.

Why Red Bull is being checked extra

"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," Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA president of the Single-Seaters, told Motorsport.com. Red Bull are under a magnifying glass in this respect, and other teams working together. For example, Haas and Ferrari.

However, the FIA is confident that there is no information exchange between the two parties at the moment. AlphaTauri has aerodynamically different solutions to problems than Red Bull Racing, and more importantly, teams have to show how they get certain parts. So Red Bull has to do their own research on parts to prove that they got that information themselves. Delivering a part not tested in their wind tunnel would immediately raise questions.

The FIA stresses that it is no easy task to test all parts but assumes that there are no illegal practices at Red Bull or the other collaborations at the moment.