Red Bull boss Christian Horner has rubbished suggestions that his team’s closer collaboration with AlphaTauri will open the door for a repeat of Formula 1’s ‘Pink Mercedes’ controversy.
A relaunched and renamed AlphaTauri team in 2024 will forge closer ties with its sister team—and take more Red Bull parts than it has done recently—as part of a revamp to which Horner has contributed.
However, the new closer alliance has raised eyebrows in the paddock, with concerns that the collaboration will give both teams an advantage as they will be able to share development ideas and shortcut solutions.
Rival teams have already expressed private concerns about the situation and urged the FIA to investigate thoroughly to ensure that nothing unfair is taking place.
But Horner insists that nothing untoward is taking place and that the relationship between Red Bull and AlphaTauri will be nothing like that between Mercedes and Racing Point that produced the infamous ‘Pink Mercedes’ controversy in 2020.
Back then, Racing Point, which was using the Mercedes wind tunnel, produced an RP20 that bore a striking resemblance to the Mercedes 2019 car.
Rival teams eventually protested the design, and Racing Point was found guilty of breaching IP rules with its rear brake ducts, being fined 400,000 euros and losing 15 constructors’ championship points.
Horner says what his team is doing with AlphaTauri is a world away from what happened in the past.
“We’re an awfully long way from a ‘Pink Mercedes’,” he said. “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 that are far closer in concept than 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.”
Horner said that AlphaTauri’s performance on track was ultimately in its own hands, as how it developed from here would be decided at its Faenza factory.
“It’s down to the quality of people that will be on the team,” he said. “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, suspension and simulation tools, and wind tunnels.
“And that is an identical relationship between the companies.
“Of course, it is then up to them how they use those tools. You can see that McLaren has used those tools, in certain respects, better than their supplier has done in half of the year.
“It’s really up to them how they make use of what they’re permitted within the regulations.”
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