FIA wants to look ‘very carefully’ at F1 team alliances

Charlie Whiting is planning to look “very carefully” at alliances between teams on the Formula 1 grid amid growing concerns throughout the paddock of the role of B-teams.

A number of misgivings have been raised in recent months over the closeness between manufacturers and the teams they supply, with Ferrari’s technical partnership with Haas, which debuted in 2016, being highlighted as one area of concern.

There are fears that shared development could benefit the bigger team, particularly at a time when F1 is pushing to introduce new restrictions such as cost caps that ‘B-teams’ would help circumvent.

The issues flagged up during talks to save Force India, with a number of teams raising concerns that it could become a Mercedes B-team, while McLaren boss Zak Brown said last weekend he was "very concerned" by the issue, believing F1 would "ultimately see the big teams working more closely with the small teams and figuring out a different way to spend their money."

Speaking at Monza last weekend, FIA race director Whiting confirmed he would be taking a closer look at the matter in the future.

“I think it’s something we should be concerned about, and it’s something we will be discussing,” Whiting said.

“Obviously the [Haas-Ferrari] relationship started it, and we knew exactly how that was possible in the beginning. There was a loophole in the beginning which has been closed now to new entrants.

“It’s why [Haas] were able to do a lot more work than a current team than it could before it was established as a proper entrant. But that won’t happen anymore.

“But the sort of things we are hearing is alliances between existing teams and I think that needs to be looked at very carefully.”