McLaren CEO Zak Brown has filed a formal letter with FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem requesting a regulatory change to prohibit multi-team ownership structures in Formula 1. The petition arrives as the sport finalizes technical and governance rules for the 2026 power unit cycle, when four manufacturers will supply ten teams.
Brown's letter explicitly targets scenarios where one entity holds equity stakes or operational control across multiple constructor entries. The timing aligns with recent ownership churn: Audi completes its Sauber acquisition in 2026, Andretti's $450 million rejected bid remains in arbitration, and Ford enters as Red Bull Powertrains' badge partner with unclear governance terms. Brown previously raised the issue in 2024 when Liberty Media's concurrent ownership of Formula 1 commercial rights and potential team equity drew scrutiny from the European Commission's competition directorate.
The competitive argument centers on resource allocation and technical intelligence. Under the current $135 million budget cap, teams operate as sealed financial units, but shared ownership creates pathways for wind-tunnel data, supplier relationships, and personnel movements that bypass cost controls. Brown's concern is structural: if one ownership group fields two teams, it effectively doubles its statistical probability of podium finishes and championship points, altering the commercial prize fund distribution without breaking explicit budget rules. The ten-year Concorde Agreement signed in 2021 contains anti-collusion language but no explicit ownership firewall.
The petition matters because three regulatory windows converge in 2025. The FIA World Motor Sport Council meets in June to ratify 2026 technical rules. Liberty Media's board reviews franchise valuations quarterly, with current team entries carrying implied enterprise values near $2 billion based on Michael Andretti's bid metrics. The Concorde Agreement permits amendments if seven of ten teams and the FIA agree, meaning Brown needs six allies. He likely has them: Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull operate as standalone manufacturer teams with no structural appetite for shared ownership. Williams and Alpine are family-office and state-backed respectively. That leaves Haas, Aston Martin, Sauber/Audi, and RB as potential opposition, though RB's 100% Red Bull ownership already sits in regulatory gray space as a development team.
The technical mechanism Brown wants is simple: no entity may hold more than 49% equity or operational control in more than one constructor. This mirrors NFL cross-ownership prohibitions and English Premier League's fit-and-proper-person tests. The enforcement challenge is definitional. Ford's Red Bull partnership involves engine supply, intellectual property licensing, and reportedly $250 million in committed capital, but Ford holds zero governance votes under current disclosures. Private equity firms including Arctos and CVC own minority stakes across multiple teams through separate funds, a structure that survived antitrust review because fund managers maintain Chinese walls between portfolio companies.
Brown's broader agenda is transparent: he wants team valuations to remain high and entry barriers to remain prohibitive. A dual-team ownership structure effectively halves the number of available franchise slots, depressing McLaren's enterprise value if the team ever explores sale or minority recapitalization. McLaren Technology Group remains 100% owned by Bahrain's Mumtalakat Holding Company, which paid an undisclosed sum to assume control from previous investors in 2020. Mumtalakat has not publicly marketed the asset, but team principals across the paddock track valuations by watching when Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Qatar Investment Authority send representatives to flyaway races.
The FIA's response timeline is predictable. Ben Sulayem's office will circulate Brown's letter to all ten team principals and request written positions by late May. If seven teams support, the matter advances to the World Motor Sport Council for a June vote. If fewer than seven support, the petition dies unless Brown elevates it to the F1 Commission, where commercial rights holder Liberty Media holds veto power. Liberty's incentives are mixed: higher team valuations benefit its balance sheet, but operational flexibility to approve new entrants or ownership structures protects its negotiating leverage with existing teams.
Watch for team principal comments during the Miami Grand Prix paddock sessions in early May, when sponsorship executives and private equity scouts converge for the U.S. market's highest-visibility race weekend. If Christian Horner at Red Bull or Fred Vasseur at Ferrari publicly endorse Brown's position, the rule change becomes probable. If they stay silent, Brown miscalculated his coalition. The Andretti arbitration ruling, expected by June, will clarify whether existing ownership restrictions already violate competition law, potentially rendering Brown's petition moot or giving it urgency depending on the tribunal's reasoning.
The takeaway
Brown's petition targets 2026 rule window to ban multi-team ownership, needing seven of ten teams to trigger FIA vote by June.
formula 1ownershipfiamclarenzak browngovernance
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