McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown submitted a formal letter to FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem requesting elimination of shared ownership structures across Formula 1 teams. The timing is exact: Red Bull Racing and RB (formerly AlphaTauri) occupy paddock slots 1 and 6, share an energy-drink parent, and now generate friction as both programs push budgets near the $135M cost cap. Brown wants the door closed before someone else walks through it.
The current Concorde Agreement permits common ownership with restrictions. Red Bull's dual-team setup predates the cost cap era, grandfathered under 2021 rules that assumed the junior squad would remain a development pipeline, not a constructor finishing P8 in 2024 with a car fast enough to embarrass its senior partner on certain Sundays. Brown's letter does not name Red Bull explicitly. It does not need to. Every team principal knows which garages share the same wire transfers.
The ask matters because team valuations have detached from revenue multiples and now trade on scarcity. Audi enters in 2026 by acquiring Sauber's entry, reportedly paying north of $600M for an outfit that finished P10 last season. Andretti's blocked bid valued a *hypothetical* 11th entry near $1B, assuming dilution penalties and establishment costs. McLaren itself took minority investment from MSP Sports Capital in 2020 at a $560M post-money valuation; the team is now quietly shopped at $1.2B+ in family-office circles, per three separate allocators who have reviewed decks in the past six months. If you can own two entries, you own two lottery tickets in a game where new tickets are no longer printed.
Brown's concern is structural, not sentimental. A multi-team owner could theoretically optimize costs across both operations—shared wind tunnel time, CFD resources, supplier negotiations—while staying under individual caps. The FIA's technical regulations prohibit part sharing and data transfer, but procurement leverage and personnel rotation sit in gray zones. RB's 2024 aero gains arrived suspiciously fast after Red Bull's chief designer departed for "advisory work." No rules were broken. The optics write themselves.
The letter arrives as Liberty Media's $21B merger with Dorna Sports (MotoGP) closes within weeks, creating a motorsport portfolio that spans two-wheel and four-wheel properties under single ownership. If Liberty can own multiple racing series, the logical extension is: why can't a consortium own multiple F1 teams? The Concorde's current language does not explicitly forbid private equity from assembling a portfolio of entries, provided governance remains separate. MSP Sports Capital already holds stakes in McLaren and Alpine's parent company, Renault Group, through separate vehicles. Brown's letter is prophylactic—he sees the trade before it prints.
The FIA's response timeline is uncertain. Ben Sulayem has six months until the next World Motor Sport Council session in June, where Concorde amendments require 8 of 10 team votes plus FIA and Liberty approval. Red Bull will vote no. RB (who votes separately under current rules) will vote no. That leaves Brown needing 8 of 10, which requires peeling away teams who might themselves benefit from flexibility. Haas, perpetually underfunded, has explored sale processes three times since 2022; banning multi-team ownership shrinks the buyer pool. Williams, now owned by Dorilton Capital, sits in similar calculus.
The sponsor angle is cleaner. If two teams share an owner, brand partners face category-conflict issues. Oracle sponsors Red Bull; a competitor cannot easily sign RB without Oracle's consent, reducing inventory scarcity that drives $50M–$80M title-sponsor deals. McLaren's own partner stack—Google, Dell, Cisco—benefits from ownership fragmentation. Each team must find its own tech sponsor; consolidation commoditizes the asks.
Brown closed the letter with a request for "clarity and competitive fairness," which in paddock translation means: decide now, before someone builds a structure we cannot unwind. The FIA has historically moved slowly on governance unless forced by crisis. This is not yet a crisis. It is a CEo reading the term sheet before it circulates.
The takeaway
Brown's multi-team ownership ban push protects McLaren's $1.2B+ valuation by preserving scarcity as PE and family offices circle dual-entry plays.
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