McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown sent a formal letter to the FIA in May requesting rule changes that would prohibit common ownership structures across multiple Formula 1 teams, according to three people familiar with the correspondence. The timing is pointed: four groups have contacted existing teams about minority stakes in the past eight months, and the $450 million anti-dilution payment for each new entrant—set to rise with the 2026 Concorde Agreement—makes buying into an existing operation more attractive than starting fresh.
Brown's position has not shifted since he raised the issue publicly in 2024. The concern is structural, not theoretical. Red Bull Racing and RB F1 Team already operate under common ownership through Red Bull GmbH, a grandfather clause from the Toro Rosso era. Haas F1 Team owner Gene Haas, 76, has discussed succession options that include selling to a buyer with stakes in another series. Audi's $658 million purchase of Sauber closes in January 2026, and Volkswagen Group sits on the supervisory boards of both Audi and Porsche—Porsche, which evaluated its own F1 entry in 2022 before walking away.
The FIA's International Sporting Code governs conflicts of interest but does not explicitly forbid shared ownership if firewalls exist. Brown's letter, reviewed by two people, argues that no firewall is sufficient when the same board reviews budgets for two teams under the $135 million cost cap. The logic: a shared owner optimizing returns across a portfolio of teams has different incentives than ten independent operators maximizing performance within fixed spending limits. One team can be tasked with driver development, another with prize-money maximization. The competitive balance unravels not through cheating but through allocation.
McLaren's own shareholders complicate the optics. MSP Sports Capital holds a 33% stake in McLaren Racing, and MSP also owns pieces of Esports organizations and has evaluated investments in other racing properties. Brown's letter specifies the concern is direct team-to-team ownership, not passive financial sponsors across categories. The distinction matters to family offices circling the sport. One London-based allocator told colleagues in April he was sizing a 15% stake in a midfield team while maintaining holdings in a NASCAR operation, viewing the positions as uncorrelated. Brown's push would not affect that structure but would block the allocator from buying into a second F1 team.
The FIA meets in Paris on June 12 for its quarterly World Motor Sport Council session. Three agenda items are public; ownership rules are not listed. Brown's letter is one of six governance submissions the FIA received from teams this quarter, according to one team principal. Most focus on cost-cap enforcement, specifically monitoring of capital expenses that could be amortized to avoid annual limits. Brown's, by addressing ownership, opens a longer conversation. The 2026 Concorde Agreement is not final. Teams are negotiating revenue distribution, and the entry fee is part of that package. If multi-team ownership becomes forbidden, the $450 million anti-dilution payment loses some of its deterrent value, because consolidation through acquisition would be closed off.
Liberty Media Corporation, F1's commercial rights holder, has not taken a public position. Privately, two Liberty executives have said they want ten independent teams, not eight teams with two run by the same owner. But Liberty does not write sporting regulations. The FIA does. And the FIA's president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, faces re-election in December 2025. His challengers, if any emerge, will likely use governance reform as a platform. Brown's letter gives them material.
Red Bull's Christian Horner called the issue "academic" in a March interview, noting that RB F1 operates with separate management and separate technical staff. That argument holds until the day both teams report to the same CFO signing off on wind-tunnel hours and simulation cluster access under the Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions, which scale inversely with championship position. The better Red Bull Racing performs, the fewer hours both teams get in aggregate if treated as a single unit. No rule forces that treatment today. Brown wants one.
Watch the June FIA council. If ownership restrictions appear on the agenda, three teams—Haas, Alpine, and Williams—will resist, because all three have entertained acquisition overtures. If the item does not appear, Brown will escalate at the September team principals' meeting in Monza. A second signal: whether Andretti Global, still seeking entry, adjusts its $1.1 billion bid to include purchasing a stake in an existing team instead of joining as the eleventh. That offer, if it comes, would test whether the FIA wants Brown's rule badly enough to enforce it retroactively.
The takeaway
Brown's FIA letter attempts to close the multi-team ownership door before private equity and OEMs turn the grid into a portfolio game.
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