McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown sent a formal letter to the FIA this week calling for explicit prohibitions on multi-team ownership structures, marking the first time a team principal has put the demand in writing to motorsport's governing body. The letter, confirmed by sources familiar with the correspondence, follows at least three instances since 2023 where financial entities have taken minority stakes in multiple F1 teams simultaneously.
Brown's letter does not name specific investors, but the timing aligns with recent disclosures. RedBird Capital holds equity in both Scuderia Ferrari and a consortium linked to Alpine's commercial operations. Otro Capital, a family office launched by former Goldman partners, disclosed minority positions in Williams Racing and Haas F1 in filings reviewed last quarter. A third structure involves a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth vehicle holding sub-10% stakes in Aston Martin and Sauber, though those positions predate F1's current ownership rules and were grandfathered under 2021 Concorde Agreement language.
The concern is not theoretical. In 2024, McLaren and Ferrari competed for second in the Constructors' Championship, a position worth approximately $18 million in incremental prize money. If a single investor holds material stakes in both teams, the incentive structure warps: maximizing combined portfolio value may not align with maximizing individual team performance. Brown's argument, outlined in the letter, is that F1's competitive balance depends on each of the ten teams operating as fully independent entities. Shared ownership creates ambiguity around personnel transfers, technical collaboration, and sponsor conflicts. The letter reportedly includes a proposed rule: no individual, fund, or related-party group may hold more than 5% equity in more than one team.
The FIA has no formal mechanism to block ownership structures once they clear antitrust review, which most minority investments do automatically. F1's commercial rights holder, Liberty Media, controls team entry but not ownership transfers below the control threshold. That leaves governance in a gap. Brown's letter asks the FIA to include the ownership ban in the next Concorde Agreement, scheduled for negotiation in 2025 ahead of the 2026 regulatory reset. Without it, McLaren will push for binding arbitration language that allows teams to challenge conflicted ownership before the season begins, rather than mid-campaign.
The letter has support. Williams Racing principal James Vowles told reporters Wednesday he shares Brown's concerns but declined to confirm whether Williams sent its own correspondence. Alpine CEO Philippe Bouchet, whose team took a $200 million cash injection from a consortium in 2023, said the team's investors have "no overlap" with rival squads but acknowledged the issue is "worth clarifying." Ferrari has not commented. Red Bull Racing principal Christian Horner, whose team has no overlapping investors, said Wednesday he sees "no urgent problem" but would not oppose rules "if they make everyone comfortable."
The FIA is expected to respond to Brown's letter within 30 days, per standard governance protocol. If the FIA declines to act, McLaren can force the issue by proposing an amendment to the 2026 Concorde Agreement, which requires seven of ten teams to pass. The alternative is private enforcement: McLaren's letter includes a section outlining the team's right to file a formal protest if it believes a conflicted ownership structure influenced a competitive outcome, such as a personnel transfer during a championship fight. That protest path has never been tested in F1's modern era.
Brown's letter also asks the FIA to require public disclosure of all stakeholders holding more than 3% in any team, a threshold borrowed from SEC rules. Currently, F1 teams disclose ownership only to Liberty Media and the FIA, not to each other. The lack of transparency means teams learn about cross-ownership from press releases, often months after deals close. Brown argues that real-time disclosure would allow teams to object before conflicts mature.
The immediate catalyst appears to be personnel movement. Two engineers who worked on McLaren's 2024 suspension system joined Ferrari in January 2025, both employed by firms later revealed to have minority investors overlapping with McLaren's cap table. Brown's letter does not allege wrongdoing but notes that "structural ambiguity undermines trust." The FIA's technical department reviewed the hires and found no breach of IP rules, but the episode clarified what informal norms cannot prevent.
Watch for the FIA's formal response by late May, which will either propose rule language or punt the issue to Concorde negotiations. If the latter, expect McLaren to circulate draft amendment language to the other nine teams by June, ahead of the 2026 regulation finalization window in September. Vowles, Bouchet, and Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu will likely be the swing votes: all three run teams that have taken outside capital and may resist rules that shrink their investor pool. Brown, meanwhile, has already scheduled calls with two U.S.-based family offices that currently hold no F1 stakes, positioning McLaren as the clean alternative if cross-ownership becomes politically toxic.
The takeaway
Brown's formal FIA letter escalates multi-team ownership fight into Concorde negotiations, with **seven-team** threshold needed to force disclosure rules by September **2026**.
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