McLaren CEO Zak Brown has sent a formal letter to FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem calling for rule changes that would prohibit common ownership structures across Formula 1 teams. Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has separately indicated his team would support stricter independence standards. The FIA is now split internally on whether to codify a ban or preserve flexibility, a decision that will determine whether the grid can accommodate the kind of multi-franchise portfolio models common in American sports.
Brown's letter follows months of quiet concern among team principals about ownership consolidation. The issue surfaced after the FIA granted Andretti Cadillac a provisional entry only to see Formula 1 Management reject the bid, in part over concerns about diluting existing franchise economics. Brown's position is straightforward: the sport's long-term value depends on true competitive separation, and ownership overlap creates conflicts of interest that compromise that separation. Mekies, whose Red Bull organization includes both the senior team and the AlphaTauri (now Racing Bulls) junior squad, has not opposed tougher language, a notable shift given his team's history. The FIA has not yet scheduled a vote.
The governance question matters because it defines the asset class. A Formula 1 team is currently valued on the assumption that it competes independently, shares commercial revenue equally under the Concorde Agreement, and operates within cost-cap constraints that keep labor arbitrage minimal. If ownership consolidation were permitted, a billionaire could theoretically acquire two teams, optimize aerodynamic development across both operations, and extract synergies that smaller single-team owners cannot match. That changes the franchise premium. Family offices and institutional allocators sizing stakes in McLaren, Williams, or Aston Martin are pricing in scarcity and competitive parity; multi-team ownership introduces basis risk.
Brown's letter also signals something else: McLaren is preparing for a sale or a meaningful equity raise. The team has been rebuilding its commercial operation, hired a new CFO last year, and recently closed a $200 million technology-center financing package. Clarifying ownership rules now makes the asset easier to price. Red Bull's openness to stricter standards, meanwhile, likely reflects its own succession planning. Dietrich Mateschitz's estate has been methodical about unwinding cross-holdings, and Racing Bulls is widely understood to be a divestment candidate if the right buyer emerges. Neither team wants ambiguity in the rule book when those processes accelerate.
The FIA's internal divide is less about philosophy and more about calendar. Ben Sulayem has been focused on expanding the grid, and multi-team ownership could theoretically ease entry for a manufacturer unwilling to commit to a standalone operation. The counter-argument, which Brown and Mekies are both advancing, is that such a manufacturer would destabilize the revenue model that makes the existing ten franchises valuable. The Concorde Agreement runs through 2030; any ownership rule changes adopted now would lock in structural assumptions for the remainder of that term.
Watch for the FIA's next World Motor Sport Council meeting, expected in June, where ownership language could be tabled. Also watch which teams stay silent. Haas, the smallest operation on the grid, has not commented, and its ownership situation—Gene Haas holds the entry but outsources most technical work—sits in a regulatory grey zone. If the FIA moves toward stricter rules, Haas may need to renegotiate supplier agreements or find a buyer. Ferrari, the only manufacturer team that also supplies engines to customer operations, has likewise been quiet, which usually means it is negotiating bilaterally.
The cleanest outcome for franchise buyers is a hard rule: one team, one owner, no exceptions. That makes every entry scarce, every commercial right fully independent, and every valuation comparable. Brown's letter is an attempt to get that outcome on record before the next ownership transition starts.
The takeaway
McLaren and Red Bull both backing ownership firewalls clarifies franchise scarcity for allocators ahead of **2030** Concorde expiry.
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