Christian Horner says it is how customer teams use the tools shared with a bigger team rather than simple sharing amid renewed questions on Red Bull/AlphaTauri ties.
The topic of sharing has been on for years and it came to lot of debates when Ferrari and Haas happened and when Mercedes and Racing Point happened. Amid that, there is always the situation with Red Bull which owns both the senior team and also AlphaTauri.
For years now, questions have been raised but the FIA hasn’t found anything on them. With the ties seemingly to grow closer as noted by Red Bull and AlphaTauri, F1 rivals have raised the topic again, especially McLaren’s Zak Brown most recently.
Ferrari’s Frederic Vasseur agrees that the situation is strange but has faith on the FIA. With the Concorde Agreement discussions on, the F1 team bosses like a discussion especially on the topic of Red Bull owning two outfits in one championship.
Horner, meanwhile, feels the tools shared by two teams come under the F1 regulations. It is similar to how other customer outfits work and it is on the teams to use the tools in a better way. “I have no idea,” he said to media when asked about sharing. “It’s down to the quality of people that will be in the team.
“Of course, there are certain components that we can supply, as is the case with Mercedes and Ferrari that supply current grand prix teams with gearboxes and suspension and simulation tools and wind tunnel. And that is an identical relationship between the companies. Of course, it is then down to them how they use those tools and you can see that McLaren have used them tools, in certain respects, better than their supplier has done in half of the year.
“It’s really down to them how they make use of what they’re permitted within the regulations,” summed up Horner, who when pressed on the latest discussions, he noted that there are visible differences in the two cars of Red Bull and AlphaTauri.
It isn’t like it was seen in the case of Racing Point using Mercedes-like component. “It wasn’t discussed in the Commission,” said Horner. “But look, we’re an awfully long way from a pink Mercedes. There are some transferable components that are clearly listed within the regulations that you’re allowed to supply and that’s what they get.
“When you look at the car, there are quite fundamental differences between that car and a Red Bull Racing car. And arguably, there are other cars on the grid which are far closed in concept that an AlphaTauri is. You’ve only got to look at an Aston Martin or even a McLaren. If you look around the rear suspension of a McLaren, it’s very close in concept to that of our own,” summed up Horner.
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