Brown slams ’embarrassing’ F1 rule change discussions

McLaren CEO believes that “embarrassing” Team Principals’ meetings are blocking rule changes necessary for the good of the sport and wants more power given back to the FIA and Formula One Management (FOM) in the F1 Commission.

Team Principals from all 10 Formula 1 teams meet with the FIA and FOM to form what is known as the F1 Commission.

The F1 Commission discuss potential changes to the governance of Formula 1, but Brown argues that teams are too fixated on self-interest than making wholesale positive changes to the competition.

McLaren’s CEO recalled a run-in with former Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer, who opposed a McLaren motion in one meeting, only to change his mind when it suited his own team.

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“It can be pretty embarrassing in times in the team principal meetings,” said Brown.

“An example being when Lando was up on penalty points two years ago, and we made our case that, actually, the majority of those penalty points weren’t ‘dangerous’ and Otmar was totally against it, because obviously everyone wanted to give Lando a ban.

“Fast-forward 12 months, Gasly’s up against it, Otmar brings forward the same exact case that we brought forward and we were like ‘dude, you voted against that?’ He didn’t even know where he voted. And that’s not healthy, because it shows that one year it might work for you, the following year it might not work for you.”

As it stands, 28 out of 30 votes are needed for the F1 Commission to pass through a proposed rule change.

20 votes are shared evenly between the FIA and FOM with each of the teams getting one vote apiece.

This allows certain teams to block rule changes as they see fit, which should be no surprise given the cutthroat nature of Formula 1 competition.

However, Brown would like to see Formula 1’s piranha club somewhat take its foot off the gass and allow FOM and FIA more power to make rule changes.

“I think you’ve just got to stand back and let the FIA and Formula 1 regulate for the fairness of the sport,” said Brown.

“Which means you’re going to win some, lose some. There could be some times that we [McLaren] lose in the short-term, because we would have liked to block something.

“I believe McLaren want to race in a fair and sporting and equitable way, which means sometimes it might go for you, sometimes it might go against you.

“But over the long haul, if we’re all in a sport that is about total fairness, and things are equal for everyone, I think that’s just a better sport. We all win.

“I’d like to see us get rid of majority votes and get to a simple ‘50%, something gets through’ because we’re all conflicted in some way at some point.

“We do need to give more of the power back to Formula 1 and the FIA to do what they think is right for the sport. I think we’re our own worst problem at times.”