McLaren seeks new discussion on close ties between Red Bull teams

14:59, 14 Aug

Co-author:Norberto Mujica

byLudo van Denderen

It was a lightning-fast transfer: one week Laurent Mekies was the team boss of Racing Bulls, the next he was leading Red Bull Racing. The Frenchman had no gardening leave in between, which is usual in Formula 1. And that raises questions, for example at McLaren.

The British team has been critical for some time about the way Red Bull deals with both teams. After the appointment of Mekies, who could theoretically take 'secrets' from one team to the other on paper, McLaren believes that this issue needs to be discussed by the soon-to-be eleven teams in Formula 1.

Stella wants to keep F1 fair

"This is an interesting topic and quite complex," team boss Andrea Stella told, among others, GPblog. "We have to be wary that we don't approach it in too simplistic a way."

"Certainly, McLaren in the past have raised the question about team independence.

"It's a question that should be discussed as part of putting the sport in a very solid, fair position so that any team that operates in a fully independent way is protected against the benefits that can be exploited in being dependent as teams from one another."

Andrea Stella responds to the swift transition of Laurent Mekies

McLaren wants to have a discussion

"At the moment, we at McLaren trust that the regulations in place and the way they are enforced are already a valid way of mitigating any potential risk associated with connections between teams, like changing from one team to the other from one day to the next."

"But definitely, we think this is a topic that can be part of constructive conversations in the future to see if there's a way of approaching the matter of team independence in an evolved way compared to where we are at the moment."

In doing so, he essentially repeats words that Zak Brown, the CEO of Mclaren, used earlier. The American believes that the same owner should not be able to have two teams, as Brown fears that these teams could help each other.