McLaren CEO Zak Brown has written to FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem requesting rule changes that would formally prohibit common ownership structures across multiple Formula 1 teams. The letter, sent April 22, arrives eighteen months after McLaren secured minority investment from MSP Sports Capital at a $1.2 billion enterprise value and six months after Andretti Global withdrew its grid-entry bid.
Brown's concern is structural. F1's current Concorde Agreement permits a single entity to hold financial stakes in multiple teams provided operational control remains separate. The governance gap matters because the sport's ten-team, fixed-supply grid creates valuation tension: existing franchises trade at 12x to 15x revenue while would-be entrants face $200 million anti-dilution payments to current teams plus capital expenditure that approaches $400 million before the first race. For allocators sizing F1exposure, buying into two mid-grid teams at a blended $800 million begins to pencil against starting from scratch.
The timing is commercial, not philosophical. Audi enters in 2026 with a works engine and a purchased Sauber chassis operation. General Motors and Cadillac are positioning for a 2028 or 2030 homologated entry after Andretti's rebuff. Liberty Media has capped the grid at ten teams since the 2021 Concorde renegotiation, which means new supply requires either expansion (unlikely before 2030) or consolidation. Brown's letter effectively asks the FIA to foreclose the consolidation path before a sovereign fund or family office discovers that owning 30 percent of two teams yields board influence at two different revenue-share tables.
The competitive concern is harder to quantify but easier to market. If a capital partner holds stakes in both a factory team and a customer team, does the factory team's upgrade calendar shift? Does the customer team's driver academy feed talent to the partner's senior squad? Brown ran United Autosports while building McLaren's commercial operation; he understands how governance structures and IP-sharing agreements interact when the same LP sits on multiple cap tables. His letter positions McLaren as defending competitive purity, which plays well with Netflix-native fans and with sponsors who pay $35 million annually for primary placement on a car they believe competes on merit.
The regulatory path is narrow. The FIA governs sporting rules; the Concorde Agreement governs commercial arrangements among teams, Liberty Media, and the FIA. Brown's letter to Ben Sulayem can trigger an FIA working group, but any ownership restriction needs seven of ten teams to ratify a Concorde amendment. Williams, recently sold to Dorilton Capital for $200 million, is unlikely to support a rule that constrains future buyer optionality. Haas, the grid's smallest operation, might welcome a restriction that protects independent teams, or might oppose a rule that forecloses a $450 million exit to a multi-team acquirer. Alpine, Aston Martin, and Sauber/Audi have all cycled ownership or investment structures in the past 36 months; their votes depend on where their current backers see the next liquidity event.
Brown's move also signals McLaren's positioning for the 2026 engine regulations and the 2030 Concorde renewal. McLaren runs Mercedes power through 2030 and has no works partnership. If the FIA tightens ownership rules, McLaren protects its independent constructor status and retains full control over a franchise now valued north of $1.5 billion by private-market comps. If the FIA declines, Brown's letter establishes him as the voice that warned the paddock before a consolidation wave reshapes the grid.
Watch FIA technical and sporting working groups in May and June for any ownership-structure language. The 2026 engine regs take effect in 20 months; teams finalize 2027 driver contracts between July and September 2026. If a multi-team ownership structure emerges, it will surface in the Q3 2026 to Q1 2027 window, when teams set budgets and allocators mark positions. Brown's letter is the preemptive countermove.
The governance question is whether F1 treats team ownership like a franchise asset with tradeable equity or a sporting license with conditional renewal. Brown is asking the FIA to choose the latter before the market chooses the former.
The takeaway
Brown's FIA letter preempts multi-team consolidation as F1 franchises approach **$1.5bn** valuations and allocators seek constrained-supply exposure.
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