Red Bull owning two F1 teams receives fresh criticism after “weird” fastest lap drama
"I think that the issue there is that in a sport like Formula 1, no owner should have two teams."
Ex-Haas F1 boss Guenther Steiner doesn’t think Red Bull should be allowed to own two teams after Daniel Ricciardo’s fastest lap attempt at the end of the Singapore Grand Prix.
Ricciardo pipped Lando Norris to the fastest lap at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Norris would have taken another point out of Max Verstappen’s championship lead, but it was Red Bull’s sister team, VCARB, which stopped Norris from taking the fastest lap.
Norris’ failure to secure the fastest lap in Singapore now means Verstappen can finish second in every race (and sprint) to secure this year’s world title.
Unsurprisingly, VCARB’s actions resulted in criticism from McLaren CEO Zak Brown, once again questioning the fact Red Bull own two teams.
Giving his view on the situation, Steiner described it as a “little bit weird”.
“This fastest lap, it was a little bit weird when it came you know,” Steiner said on the Red Flags podcast. “I think that the issue there is that in a sport like Formula 1, no owner should have two teams.
“You never get away from the suspicion that there is team orders between teams, not in one team, between teams. I guess we have to respect what Red Bull did at the time, because I was involved in it when they bought Minardi, Mr. Mateschitz.
“F1 was struggling. Minardi was struggling. They would have gone away without a saviour. So F1 has developed a lot since them days, and for the future, maybe there needs to be a fix to this one that nobody can own two teams.”
Steiner feels that it should be a serious talking point in the coming years.
“But I think it shouldn’t be as radical as saying, ‘Oh, in the next Concorde Agreement or commercial agreement, this needs to be sorted’. No,” he added.
“What Red Bull put into F1 to make it what it is now, it’s quite amazing, so in the end, you cannot tell them what to do with their teams. But in the future, there needs to be thoughts about that. How can we avoid this?
“Because if Visa Cash App wasn’t owned by the same owner as Red Bull, nobody would have had the suspicion. Everybody would have said it’s the last hooray from Daniel Ricciardo.
“If, for example, the Sauber would have made the fastest lap, would anybody be worried about it? No.
“So the problem lies, in that one, that it’s owned by the same owners.”
