Mercedes downplay Red Bull and AlphaTauri connection

Red Bull and AlphaTauri will be working more closely together from 2024 onwards, as the latter has undergone a raft of changes that will see them carry a new name in 2024 with Laurent Mekies and Peter Bayer dually leading the team instead of the retired Franz Tost.

But McLaren CEO Zak Brown as expressed concerns of the extra coziness between Red Bull and AlphaTauri questing the fairness of such a relation to the other eight Formula 1 teams.

But Mercedes' James Allison seemed to be laid back about the matter, putting his faith in the rules that should prevent any malpractice.

Discussing the topic with Motorsport.com, Allison said: "I’m not entirely sure what the nature of the relationships between those two teams is, but I am clear on what the rules are.

"And it is that other than the very limited part of the car where you are permitted to supply parts, and therefore a certain amount of technical data alongside those parts, in every other respect the rules are very tight about not passing on anything that could be regarded as intellectual property from one team to another.

“The way that rule is written is very broad and very powerful, and it pretty much makes any communication not permitted," he maintained.

However Allison admitted that their could be benefits from a Red Bull/AlphaTauri-style relation when it comes to the commercial side of the sport.

He pointed out: "“If two teams have a strong relationship with each other, it can only really be a strong commercial relationship. It cannot be a strong technical or a strong sporting relationship because the rules forbid that.

"In the past it was more open, and the relationship that Mercedes enjoyed with the team that is now Aston Martin, at the time that was a relationship that permitted much greater freedom than it does today. In response to that relationship, the rules were tightened up substantially to mean that you cannot really have a technical or a sporting relationship," he explained.

"If it turns out that there is one, that is something that would cause unhappiness. So, there is not much mileage to seek a close relationship with another team from a technical point of view because it is not allowed," Allison concluded.

AlphaTauri that will get its third name since Red Bull bought them as Minardi and names them Toro Rosso back in 2006 has always acted as a B-Team for Red Bull, where the latter developed their young drivers.

Red Bull even trialed the Honda power unit with Toro Rosso back in 2018 before joining forces with the Japanese manufacturer one season later.