Red Bull 'self-imposed' stricter F1 restrictions after McLaren concern

Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has revealed how his team has 'self-imposed' stricter limits on transferring personnel after concerns from McLaren's Zak Brown. 

Brown, the McLaren CEO, has long wanted dual-team ownership to be eliminated from F1, with Red Bull GmbH currently owning both Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls - meaning one principal owner has two teams which compete directly against each other.

In other sports, such as UEFA football competitions, such as the Champions League and Europa League, this is banned, with Brown recently writing to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to outline his concerns.

Of the areas Brown cited, they include a concern about the transfer of people between the teams, including Mekies himself, who was immediately moved from Racing Bulls team principal to Red Bull team principal following Christian Horner's sacking in 2025, and the signing of Andrea Landi.

The McLaren chief also raised concerns over how Liam Lawson immediately ceded position to Max Verstappen at the Miami GP, despite Lawson being forced off the track by Verstappen. 

Reacting to the letter, Mekies spoke of how Red Bull itself has enacted stricter processes to ensure it is fully compliant with the rules, and said it would be "more than silly" to try to break the rules. 

"Look, we are supporting 11 teams racing independently on track, and it's a matter of regulations in order to ensure that 11 teams race independently on track," Mekies told media, including RacingNews365. 

"It doesn't matter if they are co-owned or if they have the same PU or if they have the same gearbox or the same suspensions. We need to all race independently. 

"There is an extremely precise and detailed regulations about transfer of personnel and minimum time of gardening leave between a team and another team, not only do we respect, obviously, the FIA regulations, but we have also imposed on ourselves a higher time to make sure we won't fall into this sort of discussion. 

"It is obviously not enough, hence we are supporting it, so I think it's a lot of gaming situations. 

"As for the overtaking [between Lawson and Verstappen], I would like you guys to have a look at all the interactions on the track between Racing Bulls and Red Bull Racing, since the beginning of the year.

"You will have many, many samples, because unfortunately, our car was not very competitive at the beginning of the year, so you will have many, many samples. Our analysis is telling us that it's the most difficult midfield car for us to get through.

"So certainly we will be more than silly, knowing all the attention in the world that there is on this topic, to be thinking of having a treatment that will not be compatible with the sporting regulations."