Laurent Mekies, the new leader of Red Bull’s renamed secondary Formula 1 team, has strongly disputed claims that the two teams are now overly aligned.
With the shift from the Alpha Tauri brand to the cumbersome Visa Cash App RB name for 2024, significant alterations have been made, particularly aiming at enhancing synergies with the primary Red Bull Racing team.
Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, has loudly called for the FIA to regulate what he describes as ‘B teams,’ but Mekies insists that Red Bull and RB are fully compliant with the rules.
“We respect the regulations 100 percent,” he declared to Ouest France newspaper.
“If anyone has any doubts about this, let them explain their doubts. The FIA will carry out an investigation and show the results.”
Mekies emphasized that Red Bull’s dual-team operation has a long history, spanning two decades, during which the guidelines have been clarified regarding what teams can and cannot share.
“We are a sport where it is very difficult to copy another car, so sharing an engine, a gearbox, a suspension, does not allow us – unfortunately – to have the level of performance of the team that gives us these elements. Otherwise it would be too easy,” he explained.
He suggested that the criticism of Red Bull’s A-B team strategy is unfounded.
“It’s a fear not in reality,” Mekies said, “because we have ten years of history which shows that it has never miraculously allowed a team to make a leap in performance.
“If we want to make this leap, that’s not what it’s going to happen through. It is through investments, recruitment, strengthening, organizing the team in a sustainable way.”
However, Zak Brown’s major concern is that the ‘A-B’ team collaborations give Red Bull an undue advantage, such as a doubled political influence.
“It doesn’t change anything,” Mekies countered, “neither in the work we have to do to become more competitive – hence the strengthening of the team which becomes more independent every day – nor in our freedom and duty to fight with the nine other teams on the track.
“We buy certain components from Red Bull,” he admitted, “but we remain independent competitors.”
