‘self-imposed’ stricter limits on transferring personnel after
concerns from McLaren’s Zak Brown. Brown, the McLaren CEO, has
long wanted dual-team ownership to be eliminated from F1, with Red
Bull GmbH currently owning both Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls –
meaning one principal owner has two teams which compete directly
against each other. In other sports, such as UEFA football
competitions, such as the Champions League and Europa League, this
is banned, with Brown recently writing to FIA president Mohammed
Ben Sulayem to outline his concerns. Of the areas Brown cited, they
include a concern about the transfer of people between the teams,
including Mekies himself, who was immediately moved from Racing
Bulls team principal to Red Bull team principal following Christian
Horner’s sacking in 2025, and the signing of Andrea Landi. The
McLaren chief also raised concerns over how Liam Lawson immediately
ceded position to Max Verstappen at the Miami GP, despite Lawson
being forced off the track by Verstappen. Reacting to the letter,
Mekies spoke of how Red Bull itself has enacted stricter processes
to ensure it is fully compliant with the rules, and said it would
be “more than silly” to try to break the rules. “Look, we are
supporting 11 teams racing independently on track, and it’s a
matter of regulations in order to ensure that 11 teams race
independently on track,” Mekies told media, including
RacingNews365. “It doesn’t matter if they are co-owned or if they
have the same PU or if they have the same gearbox or the same
suspensions. We need to all race independently. “There is an
extremely precise and detailed regulations about transfer of
personnel and minimum time of gardening leave between a team and
another team, not only do we respect, obviously, the FIA
regulations, but we have also imposed on ourselves a higher time to
make sure we won’t fall into this sort of discussion. “It is
obviously not enough, hence we are supporting it, so I think it’s a
lot of gaming situations. “As for the overtaking [between Lawson
and Verstappen], I would like you guys to have a look at all the
interactions on the track between Racing Bulls and Red Bull Racing,
since the beginning of the year. “You will have many, many samples,
because unfortunately, our car was not very competitive at the
beginning of the year, so you will have many, many samples. Our
analysis is telling us that it’s the most difficult midfield car
for us to get through. “So certainly we will be more than silly,
knowing all the attention in the world that there is on this topic,
to be thinking of having a treatment that will not be compatible
with the sporting regulations.”