The AlphaTauri and Red Bull are two Formula 1 teams belonging to the energy drink brand, having a natural collaboration. These synergies are now being reinforced as regulations allow, and the FIA is not concerned about the possibility of the AlphaTauri car becoming a clone of Red Bull.
The FIA’s single-seater director, Nikolas Tombazis, dismissed this concern in statements to motorsport-total.com: ‘We veto teams that are in close proximity to each other, much closer than completely independent teams, to ensure that something like this does not happen’.
Regarding AlphaTauri’s progress in the final phase of this season, the engineer believes that it is not derived from a closer collaboration with Red Bull – even pointing out: ‘We believe that AlphaTauri has very different aerodynamic solutions from the other team’.
Tombazis also emphasized: ‘We want to give more information to the teams about how they can convince us that nothing like this is happening. We do not underestimate the challenge, and this is one of the difficulties we face’.
As for cloning a car, the Greek made it clear that it goes against the rules and there are mechanisms to ensure that it does not happen: ‘Of course, this is highly illegal, but I do not believe that something like this is happening at the moment. These pairs of teams are sometimes criticized for working together just because they have a common owner or whatever, but it is not the only pair of teams that work together. They can also be two independent teams that decide to help each other. I don’t think that will happen, but I’m just saying that our tools to prevent this cannot simply be tied to the physical components sold by one team to another’.
