Red Bull dominance comes at a price: competitors open fire en masse

The tension between Zak Brown and Christian Horner was evident during last week's press conference. Although Brown says he did not attack the teams personally, the two Red Bull teams took it that way. It created a tense atmosphere at the press conference and also in the paddock.

Zak Brown has been on a collision course in recent weeks. He took many chances to criticise Red Bull Racing's collaboration with Visa Cash App RB. In his view, it is unfair that these teams can work so closely together and, in his opinion, it is also not at all necessary to have B teams in F1 with the budget cap.

In Thursday's press conference, Brown, Laurent Mekies (team boss VCARB) and Christian Horner took part. An interesting group given what Brown has been talking about through the winter. The three were, therefore, asked for their opinions. Zak Brown started.

Why Brown wants to get rid of the Red Bull teams

"Sport continues to evolve. We’ve got the budget cap in place, which I think was intended and is working for the most part to bring a level playing field to the sport, fiscally and in every other manner. No other major sport, to my knowledge, allows co-ownership of two teams that compete against each other. So I think the sport, as we're now in the budget cap era, have moved on to where we're trying to have 10 independent teams from the sporting, from the political, from a technical point of view," Brown said.

"I think they're playing by the rules. I have an issue with the rules and believe that FIA need to address this. As Helmut [Marko] has stated, he's going to maximise the opportunity, which is what you would do if you had two teams and the rules are what they are today. But I think we're going to find if the intent of the cap in all sports is to have an equal playing field."

Brown's statements hurt Visa Cash App RB. Behind the scenes, there is frustration that the team is being portrayed as a glorified 'B-team'. Yes, Red Bull own both Red Bull Racing and VCARB. However, Visa Cash App RB want to be as successful in F1 as their big brothers. Hence the team invested heavily over the winter to bring in big names like Tim Goss and Alan Permane.

According to VCARB, bringing in those big names proves that they want to stand on their own two feet. Why would people with the CV of Peter Bayer, Laurent Mekies, Tim Goss and Alan Permane make the move to this team if they are just copying Red Bull's stuff?

Why Red Bull disagree with Brown

At VCARB, they also completely disagree with Brown's contention. Namely, Brown argues that F1 is healthy enough for 10 independent teams to develop their own cars. Mekies denies that this is the case. In both sporting and financial terms, the small teams are far from being able to compete with the top teams, despite the budget cap.

"I think it's also good to remember why we have these regulations that allow us to share some of the components. There are two major reasons for that. The first one is that as a sport, we wanted to have a closer field and less lap time difference between the guy who is winning and the guy who is losing. It was felt that by allowing some components to be shared, we would avoid having too much spread between the top and the bottom of the grid," Mekies said.

Mekies argues that the latter is still not the case. In 2023, the bottom four teams gained fewer points than number six in the rankings. So there is still a big difference between the top and bottom. If teams are no longer allowed to buy parts from big teams, that gap will only widen.

"The second reason why these regulations were sought in this way is to offer whoever wants to take it, a more sustainable business model. Yes, we are in a very good position commercially and with the interest of Formula One, it's fantastic. However, there's a very simple reality that most of the team's shareholders are still pumping money into it. So I think before removing what is a more sustainable alternative into the business model of the teams we need to have a bit of a long-term view on what it's going to do for the sport in the next few years," Mekies added.

Horner seeks attack with a speech about Red Bull

Horner then threw caution to the wind. The team boss, first of all, highlighted that Red Bull has two teams in the Champions League with Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig and that this is simply allowed. Horner's main argument, however, was that there should actually be applause for Red Bull for investing so much in F1.

"One has to take a look back at the history of where this started, where and why that ownership is as it is now. Now Bernie Eccleston and Max Mosley approached Dietrich Mateschitz back in 2005 to acquire what was then the Minardi Formula One team who were struggling, insolvent and on the brink of bankruptcy. Dietrich stepped in and acquired the team. He sorted the team and obviously then invested significantly in their Fianza facilities based in Italy," Horner stated.

"We then faced the financial crisis in 2008, and as other manufacturers showed, they took that opportunity to leave the sport. I think four of them left at that point. Red Bull remained resolute, and they continued to support both teams through that difficult period. The regulations then evolved obviously, and the Fianza-based team had to become their own manufacturer, and so further investment was made in the infrastructure. We then had COVID where Red Bull once again stepped up and stuck by both teams in its entirety. In fact, Red Bull were responsible for getting Formula One going again after COVID with two races that were introduced.

"So the commitment that Red Bull has made to Formula One and the commitment that Red Bull has made to these two teams is outstanding and should be applauded and be grateful for rather than derided and tried to compromise. The two teams are totally separate. One is based in Italy, and one is based in the UK. One that is based in Italy has a far larger turnover of staff that end up in Maranello [Ferrari] than end up in Milton Keynes."

Why competitors are attacking Red Bull Racing

Horner went on like this for a while and was perhaps a time filler to avoid further questions about the investigation. Taking longer on this answer left less time for questions about it. Competitors could chuckle at it.

The battle erupting over this issue cannot be separated from Red Bull Racing's dominance. Competitors will always do everything they can to counter dominance. They will use the Horner investigation to do so, but they will also use the cooperation between the two teams to bring Red Bull down.

"But that is a constant tactic. This is always applied not only to this story. That's typical Formula 1. Yes. 100%," Verstappen remained very level-headed about the resulting fuss.