MIAMI GARDENS, Fla, (AP) — McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown wants the FIA to adopt a rule that prohibits teams from making baseless allegations against their rivals.
Brown floated the idea after using a water bottle on pit lane that had multiple large “ TIRE WATER” labels affixed on the bottle. It was Brown’s way of trolling Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner, who allegedly complained to Formula 1’s governing body that McLaren was using water to manage its tire temperature.
″(The water bottle) was poking fun at a serious issue, which is teams have historically made allegations of other teams. Most recently, one team focuses on that strategy more than others,” Brown said Saturday at the Miami Grand Prix.
“There’s a proper way to protest a team at the end of the race, and you have to make it formal, disclose where it comes from, put some money down,” he continued. “I think that process should be extended to all allegations to stop the frivolous allegations which are intended only to be a distraction.”
The protest policy F1 currently has in place requires a monetary deposit from the team that makes a formal complaint. Brown now wants the same process to apply to publicly aired concerns from rival teams so that the allegations are “put on paper” and also to curb the practice.
“If you had to put up some money and put on paper and not backchannel what your allegations are, I think that would be a way to clean up the bogus allegations that happened in this sport, which are not very sporting,” Brown said. “And if someone does believe there’s a technical issue, by all means you’re entitled to it. Put it on paper, put your money down. It should come against your cost cap if it turns out you’re wrong, and I think that will significantly stop the bogus allegations that come from some teams in the sport.”
Brown said the pay to complain fee should be “meaningful” to be effective, and, if an allegation is proved true, the money would be returned to the complaining team.
“It needs to be meaningful from a ‘I’m choosing to spend money on that instead of my own racing car’ (point of view). We’re all right at the limit of the budget gap,” Brown said. “I know we will not waste a dollar on anything that we don’t think brings performance, so it’s probably 25 grand.
“Would I spend $25,000 on a distraction tactic or develop my own race car? I’d spend it on my race car all day long.”
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