McLaren CEO Zak Brown has raised issues in regards to the relationship between Purple Bull and its junior workforce, AlphaTauri, as “one thing that must be addressed sooner or later”.
Purple Bull has owned two F1 groups because the mid-2000s — it purchased the Jaguar workforce for the 2005 season, earlier than buying Italian-based Minardi the next yr and naming it Toro Rosso.
Toro Rosso was renamed AlphaTauri, after Purple Bull’s vogue model, in 2021, however nonetheless operates out of the identical HQ in Faenza, Italy.
The world champions recorded probably the most dominant F1 season in historical past this yr and by early July had stopped engaged on the dominant RB19 and began on its successor.
AlphaTauri, by comparability, upgraded its automobile till the final race of the yr.
Brown, who’s McLaren workforce emerged as Purple Bull’s closest competitor within the second half of the season, desires the partnership between the 2 groups to be checked out.
In an interview with Autosport, Brown mentioned: “The million-dollar query that none of us know is how early did they [Red Bull] flip off this yr’s automobile?
“We all know we have outperformed the others within the growth race, and we all know we have closed the hole to Purple Bull however what none of us know is: did Purple Bull cease, and we simply caught up, or had been they nonetheless creating?
“Additionally, we’ve got some large issues over the alliance between AlphaTauri and Purple Bull. I feel that’s one thing that must be addressed sooner or later.
“So, I nonetheless suppose the game has a technique to go to make it possible for everybody is really unbiased.”
What the Purple Bull-AlphaTauri partnership will appear like going ahead has been a serious speaking level because the loss of life of Purple Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz in October 2022.
Mateschitz’s son, Mark, who owns 49 % of the corporate, resisted stress internally to promote AlphaTauri, saying his father’s ambition had at all times been to have two groups on the grid.
Purple Bull spent a lot of the yr in talks with numerous firms, which ESPN understands included JP Morgan and Hugo Boss, a few naming partnership, however thus far a deal has did not materialise.
AlphaTauri will race with Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda in 2024.