Calls for Red Bull to sell its second F1 team lack merit or fairness

The last few months have seen an increase in calls for Red Bull to not field a second team in F1.

The discussion first began to take shape with McLaren boss Zak Brown talking about one brand owning two teams. Brown has been quite adamant about a single entity having control over two different teams. This is something he's doubled down on recently as well.

The question was then further put in front of Mercedes Technical Director James Allison, about the increased collaboration between Red Bull and its sister team. While Allison trusted the FIA to keep a tab on how much information can be passed over from one team to another, there has been a growing discontent about the Austrian brand fielding two teams on the grid.

While it is hard to deny that the discontent for Red Bull's second team has grown and the increasing collaboration between the two teams plays a role in this, let us explore the issue further and see why the entire situation appears to lack merit or fairness.

Logic against the second team

First of all, let's take a look at the argument made against Red Bull having two teams. The argument is sound in many ways, because if a single brand owns two teams then it gives the brand a bigger leverage when it comes to any conflict in F1 or deciding the future of the sport. At the same time, we've just had a major fiasco where FOM has firmly rejected Andretti's bid to join the grid.

This does raise questions over whether an 11th team in the form of Andretti, that has a racing heritage and has shown a decent buffer in terms of resources, would not be adding as much value a junior Red Bull team.

To add to this, on an F1 grid that has given the impression of being a closed shop in terms of new teams, is it fair that 20% of the space gets occupied by essentially one entity? In fairness, if F1 is trying to be a closed shop, then having one entity field two teams does not sound right.

Why was the second Red Bull team created?

While we addressed the logic behind Red Bull not getting the luxury of having a second team, it is important that we first take a look at why the brand has two teams in F1 in the first place. For that, we'll have to go back to the genesis of the Torro Rosso/AlphaTauri/V-Ca-RB.

In 2005, when backmarker Minardi's future looked bleak and there were serious considerations on whether it would make it to the 2006 F1 grid, Bernie Ecclestone and The FIA had reached out to Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz to buy the team. If Dietrich had not, we were looking at a scenario where the grid would shrink further and have only 9 teams. Since 2009, the second Red Bull team has been an integral part of the sport.

It has 2 wins in different guises and has done a brilliant job in carving its niche. If F1 does go ahead with this demand of forcing the Austrian brand to sell its second team, then it would be unfair on the brand. The brand came to the sport's rescue in 2005. That will not go down well with the brand and could result in repercussions from the Austrian outfit's end.

This lacks fairness or merit

The biggest issue with the situation is that the calls are one-sided, and the view of the other side is not taken into consideration whatsoever. For Red Bull, the second team is the one in which the brand has invested a lot since 2005. Now with F1 peaking in terms of popularity, this is the time when the team's valuation is going to increase. If at this time the Austrian brand is forced to sell, then that would cost the team a lot in terms of potential revenue.

For the Austrian brand as well, such a modus operandi is not going to go down well as the team came to the rescue of the sport in 2005 and now it's being forced to do something that causes the brand monetary harm. In essence, this questions the fairness of the entire process and also brings into question the credibility of doing business with F1.

This precisely is the reason why F1 itself has never even commented or made an effort to force Red Bull into selling its second team. The whole premise of forcing the Austrian brand to sell its second team is on fairness. Unfortunately, the premise won't really apply here because it would be unfair to force an entity to sell a team after it was requested to buy it in the first place.

Hence while McLaren or any other team might object to Red Bull fielding a second team, it would be quite unfair if something like this actually happens.