Wolff jumps to defence of Red Bull amid RB controversy

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has stated that Formula 1 owes Red Bull a lot amid controversy over its ownership of two squads.

Over the last several weeks there has been unrest over Red Bull's closer ties with sister team RB, with McLaren CEO Zak Brown being particularly vocal over his dissatisfaction toward the collaboration.

Brown has called for a change to the regulations going forward to ensure more independence between constructors, with RB currently using as many parts from Red Bull as allowed by the rules.

When questioned about the situation, Wolff highlighted that Red Bull has brought great value to F1, including by financing a second team.

“I think there is a legacy situation with Red Bull that the sport owes them a lot,” Wolff told media including RacingNews365.

“They have two teams, they finance them. They have a great junior program, a track and lots of brand value, and so they're not like any other smaller team.

“So I think on the shareholder level, it's quite a difficult discussion based on that contribution.”

Wolff highlights defining question

While Red Bull's structure has been opposed by McLaren, Ferrari has jumped to the defence of how the Milton Keynes-based squad is operating.

Although he admitted to the regulations needing an assessment, Wolff aired caution over the prospect of not allowing for any collaboration going forward.

“We are a constructor sport, and I believe the same shareholding, same location, share of facilities, it's clear that some ambiguity is always going be left with competitors,” he said.

“What we need to look at is the regulations - are the regulations robust enough? Are they policed well enough for us to be in a safe place or are we seeing some potential loopholes and what is it we need for 2026?

“That is the main question - define regulations that make everyone comfortable with the situation from the small teams that use such collaboration like Haas, it's going to be very difficult for them to stand on their own feet, to the teams that have no relationships to the big teams, all the way on the other end that have joined shareholding and same locations.

“I believe that is the thing we need to be tackling, that everybody is fine with the situation.”