McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has sent a formal letter to the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile urging the governing body to ban any ownership structure that allows a single entity to control more than one Formula 1 team. The letter, confirmed by multiple paddock sources this week, arrives as private equity continues circling the sport and teams trade at enterprise values approaching $2 billion each.
Brown's argument is straightforward: any scenario where one owner holds stakes in multiple constructors creates competitive conflicts the existing rulebook does not adequately address. Current FIA regulations technically permit common ownership provided teams maintain separate commercial operations, a standard Brown considers insufficient given the sport's rising financial complexity. He is not naming a specific transaction that triggered the letter, which makes the timing more notable. No active talks involving dual-team ownership are public, but consortium bidding structures have quietly entered the vocabulary of family offices sizing F1 assets in the past eighteen months.
The concern is structural, not hypothetical. Formula 1 teams share $1.15 billion in annual prize money distributed by performance rank, meaning strategic decisions by one team directly affect rivals' revenue. A shared owner could theoretically optimize for portfolio return rather than individual team success—holding back one constructor's development to secure a higher finishing position for the sibling entity. Brown has been vocal about competitive integrity in recent years, particularly around cost cap enforcement, and this letter extends that logic into governance. If a sovereign wealth fund or multi-strategy PE firm acquires two teams, the incentive misalignment becomes permanent.
McLaren itself carries no such entanglement. Bahrain's Mumtalakat sovereign wealth fund owns a majority stake, but the portfolio includes no other motorsport assets with direct F1 overlap. Brown's position is more defensive than reactive: he is lobbying for a rule change before the ownership wave creates a precedent that becomes expensive to reverse. The FIA has quietly amended sporting regulations mid-season before, but ownership structures touch both sporting and commercial agreements with Formula One Management, meaning any prohibition would require coordination across three governing layers.
Watch for the FIA's response in the form of working group formation or rule amendment language circulated to teams ahead of the next World Motor Sport Council meeting, typically held in mid-March and mid-October. If Brown's letter gains traction, expect counterarguments from boutique advisory firms already pitching consortium models to potential buyers. The grid's newest entrants—Andretti if approved, any expansion team after 2026—become more valuable under a multi-team ban, as scarcity tightens. Conversely, existing teams exploring partial sales may face narrower buyer pools if dual ownership is prohibited before their processes close.
Brown is creating a negotiating position for a problem that does not yet exist, which is exactly when these rules are easiest to pass.
The takeaway
McLaren is preemptively narrowing the field of potential F1 buyers before portfolio ownership structures complicate competitive incentives and grid valuation.
Editorial & Disclosure Notice: This article was written with artificial intelligence from public sources and is published without individual human review. Artificial intelligence and other digital tools are also used for research, analysis, editing, formatting, and production. Errors, omissions, outdated information, or inaccuracies may occur. References to companies, brands, products, services, organizations, or individuals are for informational and editorial purposes and do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, affiliation, partnership, or approval unless expressly stated. All trademarks and other intellectual property remain the property of their respective owners. Opinions, analysis, estimates, and commentary are informational only and should not be construed as financial, investment, legal, tax, medical, procurement, or other professional advice. Information may be corrected, clarified, or updated after publication. Corrections or removal requests: jenny@pops4.com.
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