McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown sent a formal letter to the FIA this week calling for regulatory changes that would prohibit any single entity from owning stakes in multiple Formula 1 teams. The letter, confirmed by sources familiar with the correspondence, marks the first time a current team principal has formally lobbied the governing body on ownership structure since $20 billion Saudi Public Investment Fund interest in multiple paddock positions surfaced last year.
Brown's timing is deliberate. The Andretti Global entry saga exposed fractured governance between the FIA, which approved the application, and Formula One Management, which rejected it on commercial grounds. That split created an opening: nothing in current regulations explicitly prevents common ownership across teams, only vague conflict-of-interest language written when F1 was a gentleman's hobby, not a $3 billion annual revenue sport. Brown's letter closes that gap before someone exploits it.
The move matters because institutional capital is circling. Three family offices with combined assets exceeding $40 billion have quietly retained advisors to evaluate F1 team acquisitions in the past six months, according to paddock sources. The economics are straightforward: buy 15 percent stakes in three midfield teams for roughly $450 million total, coordinate aero development and driver academies, effectively control 30 percent of constructor points, and negotiate as a bloc with sponsors and FOM on revenue distribution. That structure doesn't violate current rules. Brown wants it to.
McLaren's position is self-interested but coherent. The team spent $310 million last year under the cost cap, runs its own wind tunnel in Woking, and employs 800 personnel in the F1 program. If a holding company can spread R&D costs across three teams while staying under individual cost caps, McLaren's structural advantage—operational scale within one entity—evaporates. Brown is essentially lobbying for regulatory moat protection, which is what every incumbent does when the barriers to coordination drop.
The FIA's response will signal how seriously it takes commercial encroachment. Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the FIA president, has publicly clashed with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali over governance questions, most recently on the $650 million anti-dilution fee for new entrants. If Ben Sulayem adopts Brown's proposal, it strengthens FIA's regulatory hand and effectively vetoes any Andretti-adjacent entry structured as a minority stake across existing teams. If he ignores it, the silence tells sponsors and allocators that multi-team plays remain on the table.
Watch for FIA World Motor Sport Council commentary before the April 2025 regulatory cycle closes. Any ownership rule change requires 70 percent team approval under F1's governance structure, which means Brown needs Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull aligned. Ferrari has historically opposed anything that dilutes constructor identity. Red Bull operates two teams but under explicit FIA waiver from a different era. Mercedes has 33 percent ownership of McLaren Applied, which complicates the conversation. The coalition math is harder than the letter suggests.
Brown copied the letter to all ten team principals. That distribution list is the story. He's not lobbying in private; he's forcing a public position from rivals before institutional money writes its first term sheet.
The takeaway
Brown's FIA letter aims to ban multi-team ownership before private equity or family offices exploit the loophole to coordinate operations across the grid.
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