Günther Steiner thinks the FIA needs to look into the fact that Red Bull has two teams. According to the former Haas F1 boss, Daniel Ricciardo’s fastest lap in Singapore creates an inevitable suspicion of collusion between Red Bull and RB F1.
“That fastest lap, it was a little weird when it happened” Steiner said on the Red Flags podcast. “I think the problem is that in a sport like Formula 1, no owner should have two teams.”
“You can never get rid of the suspicion that there are instructions between teams, not in one team, between teams. I think we have to respect what Red Bull did at the time, because I I participated in it when they bought Minardi, Mateschitz.”
“F1 was in trouble. Minardi was in trouble. They would have left without a savior. So F1 has evolved a lot since that time and, for the future, a solution may have to be found so that no one can own two teams.”
“But I don’t think we have to be radical and say that in the next Concorde Agreement this has to be sorted out. What Red Bull put into F1 to make it what it is today is quite unbelievable, so at the end of the day you can’t tell them what to do with their teams.”
“But in the future we will have to think about it. How can we avoid this? If RB F1 was not under the same ownership as Red Bull, no one would have had any suspicions. Everyone would have said it was Daniel Ricciardo’s last hurray.”
Steiner explains why he thinks it’s the fact that the two teams have the same owner that’s the problem: “If, for example, the Sauber had set the fastest lap, would anyone have worried about that? No. So the problem is that they are owned by the same owners. McLaren’s Zak Brown is very pressing on this subject.”
“But I don’t think they can resolve the issue for the next Concorde Agreements, which start in 2026. But for the following ones, it should keep the FIA busy finding an agreement with Red Bull for 2031. But we have to work now in this sense, and not just starting a year before the new agreement is signed, we need to start talking about it now.”
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