Mercedes dismisses fears increased Red Bull/AlphaTauri alliance

Mercedes' Technical Director James Allison has dismissed fears around the increased Red Bull-AlphaTauri alliance - believing the robustness of the rules forbids a closer partnership.

Under its new leadership in 2024, AlphaTauri is set to take more allowed parts from Red Bull with the two to enjoy a closer working relationship in the United Kingdom across their Milton Keynes and Bicester bases.

The transfer of parts is permitted under the transferable components rules (previously known as non-listed parts), but the increased cooperation has caused concern from rival teams, including McLaren's Zak Brown.

Brown believes that A/B team partnerships should be banned, but Allison has put his faith in the rule book.

"I’m not entirely sure what the nature of the relationships between those two teams is, but I am clear on what the rules are," Allison explained to Motorsport.com.

"Other than the very limited part of the car where you are permitted to supply parts, and therefore a certain amount of technical data alongside those parts, in every other respect the rules are very tight about not passing on anything that could be regarded as intellectual property from one team to another.

"The way that rule is written is very broad and very powerful, and it pretty much makes any communication not permitted."

"If two teams have a strong relationship with each other, it can only really be a strong commercial relationship," he added, believing that only marketing and commerical matters could be shared between two teams.

"It cannot be a strong technical or a strong sporting relationship because the rules forbid that.

"In the past it was more open, and the relationship that Mercedes enjoyed with the team that is now Aston Martin, at the time was a relationship that permitted much greater freedom than it does today.

"In response to that relationship, the rules were tightened up substantially to mean that you cannot have a technical or a sporting relationship.

"There is not much mileage to seek a close relationship with another team from a technical point of view because it is not allowed."