Racing Bulls ‘know how others collaborate’ in stern B-team criticism response

Peter Bayer: B-team criticism doesn’t annoy me

The Racing Bulls team makes full use of the provisions of the regulations to purchase components that are not required to be bespoke team designs, purchasing these components – ie. gearbox and rear suspension – from Red Bull Racing as a customer.

Racing Bulls aren’t the only team with such a technical arrangement – Haas, for instance, purchases gearboxes and suspension components from Ferrari, while Aston Martin runs the gearbox and rear suspension from engine partner Mercedes. What makes Racing Bulls unique on the grid is that the team shares a common owner with its supplier, with Red Bull GmbH owning both squads.

TRC (transferable components), as defined under the Technical Regulations, are parts permitted to be sold or shared by supplier teams to customers, and include various components such as clutches, front suspensions and axles, gearboxes and ancillaries, power steering, rear suspensions and axles, and various hydraulic components.

While such arrangements are clearly within the regulations, not every team agrees with the provisions of the rules. McLaren CEO Zak Brown is one voice against such arrangements, voicing concerns this year over customer agreements such as the one between Red Bull and Racing Bulls.

“The sport continues to evolve,” Brown said at the start of the year.

“We now have a budget cap in place which I think was intended, and is working for the most part, to bring a level playing field to the sport, fiscally and in every other manner.

“No other major sport, to my knowledge, allows co-ownership of two teams that compete against each other.

“So I think the sport, as we’re now in the budget cap era, has moved on to where we’re trying to have 10 independent teams from the sporting and the political, [and] from a technical point of view.”

Racing Bulls, as a sister team of the Red Bull squad, has moved its UK operations into a brand-new facility at Red Bull’s Technology campus in Milton Keynes as the efforts to more closely align the two teams continue. The move to a new facility is “game-changing” according to team CEO Peter Bayer, who said it makes the former AlphaTauri squad a “more attractive employer” for recruitment.

With the transfer of intellectual property and information prohibited by the regulations, the theoretical possibility of such sharing is something that’s closely watched by the FIA – and Bayer said he isn’t annoyed by those who criticise the business model of his team as Racing Bulls sets up its new UK home directly beside Red Bull Racing.

“Honestly, they don’t irritate me because, having spent enough time at the FIA, I know how other teams collaborate,” he said, referring to his time as the FIA’s secretary general and F1 executive director.

“I said the other day, I think I can say it again – I know for certain that Ferrari and Haas work closer than Red Bull Racing and us. I understand that it’s a cutthroat competition.

“Everybody’s trying to throw stones into the path of the other one. But, if you just look, take a step back and listen to our drivers and the engineers – listen to the feedback.

“You will hear that our car, it’s a different car. It’s simply not a copy. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be where we are in the first place.

“Secondly, you hear the comments from our guys and when you hear Ollie Bearman, who was driving the Haas and the Ferrari the other day (sic), when they asked him, ‘So what’s the difference between the two cars?’ He said, ‘The colour!’

“For the 2026 rules, nothing has changed because I think everyone, deep down, knows that it’s not that you will be going quicker because you share suspension or a gearbox or stuff.

“It just basically allows smaller teams to focus on other stuff in terms of where you spend your time, money, and development and we see now, with the 11th team coming in, except for Williams and us, all the teams have an OEM link.

“I think that, if there would be a competitive advantage in buying a suspension, then Williams would move away from it (Williams continues to make its own rear suspension).

“They’re moving away from it for cost cap reasons, probably, but, if it would be faster, I guarantee you they would find a way of buying that Mercedes suspension – because it comes with a challenge.

“You also have a challenge in terms of the design. For example, the big teams are pushing very much to the end of the season for the latest specs to be released, so we have to wait basically. Honestly, it’s a lot of noise around nothing.”

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With Red Bull and Racing Bulls obeying the regulations as written, Brown’s complaints have focused on the fact the regulations allow such synergy in the first place, rather than any specific actions by any of McLaren’s rival teams.

“Simply, I think they’re very much playing by the rules, I have an issue with the rules,” Brown said.

“I believe the FIA needs to address this. As Helmut [Marko, Red Bull motorsport advisor] has stated, he’s going to maximise the opportunity, which is what you would do if you owned two teams and the rules are what they are today.

“But I think we’re going to find, if the intent of the cap and in all sports is to have an equal playing field in the way the rules are currently written, aren’t the same for everyone.

“You have pockets of teams, also the whole A/B team situation – that doesn’t have that level playing field.

“So I think we now need to address it, and the FIA needs to address it for the rules.”

With Racing Bulls heading in the direction of maximising the collaboration with Red Bull Racing under the regulations, Bayer explained how the process had been approached.

“The synergies… that’s a topic that the shareholders asked us by saying ‘Look, guys, just see where you can collaborate. It has to be 100 per cent legal, black and white, don’t go into any grey zones’,” he said.

“Last year (2023), AlphaTauri then used its own suspension build, but I think that’s money not invested in the best possible way.

“Because, if we can buy it, let’s buy it and focus on getting the other stuff right – the floor, for example, because that’s where you need people and man hours in the carbon department.

“That’s where you have to focus on rather so, so for us, as a team, I think it’s just shifting.”

Such collaborations also have other benefits, Bayer pointed out, such as being able to silo marketing deals for prospective partners.

“In terms of marketing collaborations, you see Visa, for example, is on both cars,” he said. “So it does give you an advantage when you go to market. It’s creating economies of scale also.”