F1 News: FIA Adds Ruling To Stop Collaboration Between Teams Such As Red Bull And AlphaTauri

The FIA intends to put a check on unscrupulous team partnerships.

The FIA plans to issue a fresh ruling to stop unfair collaboration between Formula 1 teams such as Red Bull and AlphaTauri to ensure that the partnerships don't breach the regulations in any way.

In recent weeks, there has been a heightened emphasis on teams collaborating, inspired by the significant advancements achieved by AlphaTauri through its strengthened connections with Red Bull.

Leading up to the 2024 season, AlphaTauri plans to incorporate a greater number of Red Bull components. Thus, some teams have expressed concerns about the likelihood of two teams deriving advantages by collaborating extensively.

The risks of teams benefitting from such collaborations in unscrupulous ways are well known by the governing body. So, it has ensured that necessary checks are in place to catch nefarious activities, with an increased focus being placed on the teams that work closely together. 

When asked about Red Bull and AlphaTauri's close relations, FIA’s single-seater chief Nikolas Tombazis explained that there was nothing to be worried about. He told the media:

“We check teams that are in close proximity to each other a lot more closely than we check completely independent teams, exactly to make sure this thing doesn't happen.

“That is a concern.

“It has been a concern not only between the two teams mentioned, but also among other pairs of teams.

“We believe that AlphaTauri specifically does have quite different aerodynamic solutions to the other company, and we don't think there's any sign of any direct collaboration.

“Clearly, they are working hard and they have made a step forward. But I don't think it can be said it's due to collaboration.

“That said, collaboration, or making sure that no such thing happens, is one of the tricky parts of policing teams.

“We do need to audit and make sure that all of these teams are well segregated and so on. And we will be issuing some further guidances quite soon to just provide further information to the teams about how they can convince us none of that is happening.

“We're not underestimating the challenge and it is one of the difficulties we have.” 

Red Bull Press Image

There have been speculations regarding teams collaborating to explore diverse avenues of development, like experimenting with various wing concepts, to expedite the identification of optimal solutions. However, Tombazis said that such efforts would easily come under the FIA's scanner. He added:

“That is obviously heavily illegal, because we have at times in the past checked similar components between teams and then got into their development process to see how they evolved.

“I don't think there's something like that happening at the moment. We have checked and we have a process to check. Is it easy? No, I'm not saying it's easy, it's always sort of a challenge.” 

Risk Not Limited To Teams In Partnership

Leaving aside the teams that work in collaboration, Tombazis revealed a bigger risk of regulation breach that comes from teams that work alone, which may not necessarily be limited to the sharing of physical components. He said:

“The main incentive for two teams to collaborate isn't whether they exchange components or whether they even share a wind tunnel.

“You can have two teams collaborating, one is in the UK, and one is in Argentina, and if two teams wants to communicate against regulations, have Zoom calls and have the engineers chat with each other, that is quite feasible.

“We don't watch people's day-to-day movements, and nor is it our intention to do so. These pairs of teams get more frequently criticised for collaboration just because they have common ownership or whatever, but it is not the only pair of teams that could collaborate. You could have two independent teams who decide to mutually gain by helping each other.

"I don't think that's happening, but I'm just saying that our tools to prevent this happening don't need to be just linked to physical components that are sold by one team to the other.”