Mercedes: Red Bull/AlphaTauri F1 alliance won't bring major benefits

As part of an effort to resurrect the fortunes of the Italian AlphaTauri outfit, its owner Red Bull has overhauled its infrastructure and the way it works. 

The soon-to-be-renamed squad has a new team principal in Laurent Mekies, and it is set to increase the number of parts that it takes from the Red Bull squad. 

There is also set to be a much closer working alliance between the Red Bull and AlphaTauri organisations in the United Kingdom. 

That enhanced relationship has prompted concern, with McLaren boss Zak Brown saying this week that such A/B Team partnerships should be eradicated from F1 on the grounds of fairness. 

One of the issues is that, as well as the second team benefitting from any know-how from its partner, there are potential gains that a top squad could get from having work done by the other. 

Despite Brown urging F1 chiefs to prioritise a response to the situation, Mercedes technical director James Allison is more relaxed about the matter. 

He indeed thinks the regulations that outlaw the passing of any beneficial technical knowledge between two teams are robust enough to ensure that there are no legal gains to be had – so it is therefore something that does not worry Mercedes. 

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Daniel Ricciardo, AlphaTauri AT04, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14

Asked by Motorsport.com for his views on the Red Bull/AlphaTauri situation, Allison said: “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. 

“And it is that 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.” 

Allison reckons that the only areas where teams can legally work in an alliance is in marketing. 

“If two teams have a strong relationship with each other, it can only really be a strong commercial relationship,” he said. “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 that 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 really have a technical or a sporting relationship. 

“If it turns out that there is one, that is something that would cause unhappiness. So, there is not much mileage to seek a close relationship with another team from a technical point of view because it is not allowed.”