Mercedes Formula 1 Technical Director James Allison says the team trusts that the regulations limit the potential technical advantage gained through Red Bull and AlphaTauri’s shared ownership.
Amid AlphaTauri’s struggles since this regulation cycle began, it was revealed that the team would capitalise on forging a closer technical relationship with owners Red Bull.
Alongside utilising more components from the reigning champions – including the rear suspension it adopted last year – the rebranded squad will expand its presence in the United Kingdom by moving its aero department to a facility in Milton Keynes, where the parent company’s base is housed.
The tighter ties have caused McLaren CEO Zak Brown to encourage the sport’s bosses to investigate what he considers to be an alliance against “the fairness of the sport”.
With Red Bull admitting to ceasing work on its 2023 car early, Brown queried whether the Austrian outfit had acquired an edge from the sister squad’s continued development until the end of the season.
However, when asked by Autosport to give his view, Allison, who has renewed with Mercedes through 2026, asserted that he retained confidence in the outlined rules.
“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,” Allison said.
“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.”
The FIA issued clarification that it has stringent tests in place to monitor the matter, and Allison believes that such models can only legally prove beneficial to marketing.
“If two teams have a strong relationship with each other, it can only really be a strong commercial relationship,” he added. “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.
“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.”
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