McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has submitted a formal letter to FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem requesting immediate regulatory changes to prohibit multi-team ownership structures in Formula 1, according to a filing acknowledged by Reuters on Sunday. The move follows Mercedes' 19.9% minority investment in the Aston Martin Formula 1 team, announced in April, which created the series' first cross-team equity relationship under current governance rules.
Brown's letter specifically calls for amendments to the FIA's International Sporting Code before the 2026 regulatory cycle, when new power unit regulations take effect. The communication, circulated to FIA officials in late April, argues that shared ownership creates technical intelligence risks and cost-cap enforcement ambiguities that existing conflict-of-interest protocols do not adequately address. Mercedes supplies Aston Martin's power units through a 2028 contract signed in 2022, worth an estimated $18-22 million annually at prevailing customer rates. The equity stake adds board-level governance ties to an already embedded commercial relationship.
The McLaren intervention matters because it formalizes what had been paddock-level concern into a governance process. Brown's letter names no specific team but arrives nine weeks after Mercedes announced its Aston Martin position as part of a broader restructuring under CEO Ola Källenius, who is consolidating non-core motorsport assets while retaining the works F1 operation. The timing is deliberate: FIA's sporting regulations for 2026 enter final drafting this summer, with manufacturer input closing in July. Brown's letter puts structural ownership on the agenda alongside power unit homologation and budget-cap indexing.
The second-order effect is sponsor and commercial clarity. McLaren carries $180 million in annual sponsorship inventory from partners including Google, Cisco, and OKX, several of whom have activation exclusivity clauses tied to competitive separation. A team president at a rival constructor told colleagues last week that multi-team ownership creates "commercial contamination" in category exclusivity negotiations, particularly in technology and financial services sectors where brand conflict is contractual. One sponsor-side executive, speaking at the Miami Grand Prix, noted that shared ownership complicates valuation models for teams considering SPAC or private-equity pathways, because enterprise-value multiples assume independent operations.
Cost-cap enforcement is the operational friction. Formula 1's $135 million spending cap, introduced in 2021, relies on team-by-team accounting with Chinese walls between technical and commercial divisions. Shared ownership theoretically allows centralized R&D spending, split invoicing, or shared personnel whose salaries are allocated unevenly across teams. The FIA's financial regulations require teams to submit quarterly reports audited by Deloitte, but those protocols were written assuming ten independent operators. Brown's letter, according to one person familiar with its contents, argues that minority stakes undermine audit independence even if no explicit rule is violated.
FIA President Ben Sulayem has not publicly responded to Brown's letter, but told reporters in Miami that he is "reviewing all governance structures" ahead of the 2026 rules package. His term runs through 2025, with re-election expected but not guaranteed. The commercial dimension matters to the ten team principals who negotiate Concorde Agreement terms with Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali; shared ownership was not contemplated in the current agreement, which runs through 2030. One team principal said Brown's letter "opens a conversation we should have had in 2020, before the equity markets started circling."
What to watch: FIA's July sporting-regulation draft will indicate whether ownership restrictions are included in the 2026 framework. Separately, Aston Martin's next board meeting is scheduled for mid-June, where Mercedes' minority representation will be formalized. Sponsors at teams carrying category-exclusivity clauses are expected to request contract addendums clarifying ownership independence, according to two agency executives working F1 accounts. Formula 1's legal team is reportedly preparing guidance on ownership disclosure requirements for teams seeking new investment, with a memo expected before the Canadian Grand Prix.
Mercedes' stake in Aston Martin closes in Q3 2025 pending regulatory approval. The investment came from Mercedes-Benz's balance sheet, not its motorsport division, but the distinction is structural, not operational. Brown's letter is the procedural mechanism to make that distinction enforceable.
The takeaway
McLaren formalizes multi-team ownership concern into FIA process, targeting 2026 regs and raising cost-cap audit questions for sponsors and allocators.
formula onemclarenfia governanceteam ownershipcost capaston martin
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