McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says it’s better for Formula 1 to go to the “extreme” of removing teams from the rulemaking process than continue with a system that encourages strategic voting.
Brown caused a stir this week when McLaren published a lengthy article on its website in which he outlined several areas he felt F1 could be improved, including the call for secret ballots to be implemented immediately into the F1 Commission.
The 10 F1 teams, the FIA and F1 get 10 votes each in the F1 Commission, with a ‘super majority’ of 28 votes required for immediate changes and a majority of 25 votes or over sufficient for changes for the following season or beyond.
McLaren believes too many suggested rule changes are either slowed down or blocked entirely because the existing thresholds still encourage the practice of teams who have alliances or supplier relationships voting together.
It is optimistic that teams would be empowered to vote independently if the ballots were secret, although that option does already exist but is rarely – if ever – applied.
Brown has not named any teams specifically, but his comments suggest that McLaren feels Ferrari (through Haas and Alfa Romeo) and Red Bull (with its sister team AlphaTauri) manipulate the process by forcing those teams to vote a certain way. Brown insists that McLaren’s engine supplier Mercedes has never attempted to influence its vote.
Every team with an affiliation to another team insists this does not happen. But Brown said on Saturday at the Portuguese Grand Prix: “From my first day in Formula 1 I’ve witnessed and experienced this.
“Of course everyone’s going to say they vote with what’s in their best interest. But I can tell you categorically, no way. Either that, or people don’t understand what’s good for their racing.”
A range of responses has been triggered by Brown’s ‘manifesto’, including support from Alpine’s executive director Marcin Budkowski, comments from Mercedes and Haas distancing themselves from any kind of voting manipulation, and Red Bull boss Christian Horner suggesting that McLaren is only mentioning this because of some kind of “pressure applied” from Mercedes.
“There are some key topics where teams need to have a voice, but the teams have too much of a voice on too many topics” :: Zak Brown
It is typical of the self-interest and individual agendas that have blighted the F1 rulemaking process for years.
Brown would also like the super-majority threshold reduced to 27, which would stop Ferrari being able to align its three teams although in that scenario Mercedes (with three customers and a works team) would still be able to influence a decision.
Asked by The Race if, given teams can only be expected to act in their own interests, it would not be better to simply remove them from the rulemaking process, Brown said: “I would support that.
“I could see us having like a commissioner, which is obviously Stefano [Domenicali, F1 CEO], where the teams – and this is what they do in the NFL [American football] – vote in the commissioner, but then the commissioner’s got the power and really the only power the teams have is remove the commissioner if they think he’s not doing or she’s not doing a good job.
“I believe, Formula 1, and the FIA will always work in what’s in the best interest of the sport, and what’s in the best interest of the fans.
“And I would rather go to the extreme of giving them total control than what we have now.
“There are some key topics where teams need to have a voice, but I think the teams have too much of a voice on too many topics today. And I’d like to see F1 and the FIA have more authority than they have today to make decisions.
“That means sometimes we’re going to like those decisions, sometimes we’re not.”
The examples Brown gave were the token system that was enforced to control upgrades as part of the plan to carry over 2020 cars to 2021 and restrict team development, and the massively reduced pre-season testing allowance for this year.
“Those are two rules that didn’t go our way,” said Brown. “But that’s racing, you’re not going to get every rule could go your way, you’re gonna win some you’re gonna lose some.
“My agenda is if we can get a level playing field, that’s what’s in the best interest of McLaren, so we can compete fairly and put the same amount of players on the pitch that other teams do because right now it’s still out of balance.”
Brown said that he wanted his comments to be taken in the context of F1 coming “a long way in the last three years” and his belief that a lot has been improved.
“Decision-making will be quicker if there’s less opportunity for teams to slow the process down” :: Zak Brown
He insisted he was not being “critical” but trying to help map out the areas F1 could make further growth, rapidly, because that was in McLaren’s interest and that the timing of his comments now was a result of growing tired of the politics in meetings bogging things down.
Brown also said that had teams not been part of the rulemaking process, some of F1’s most important recent rule changes would still have been made and may have even been made in a better manner.
“Jean [Todt, FIA president] and Chase [Carey, ex-F1 CEO] wanted the budget cap around $135m, I think they would have maybe even gone to a slightly lower number, maybe $125m,” he said.
“So ultimately we got there, but you get there through a lot of arm-wrestling and it takes longer.
“Had they had the authority, I think we would have landed in the same place, maybe even slightly more aggressive.
“Teams need to be involved for sure. But I think, decision-making will be quicker if there’s less opportunity for teams to slow the process down and kick the can up the field.
“There will be some mistakes along the way. But then you also give Formula 1 and the FIA the ability to correct some of those mistakes.
“I don’t think anyone’s perfect. There is no perfect solution.”
HOW OTHER TEAMS REACTED TO ‘SECRET BALLOTS’ IDEA
Christian Horner, Red Bull: “I heard about that and I can only assume it’s because of pressure applied from the supplier [Mercedes]. If that is the case, it is a shame.
“McLaren are one of the most historic teams in Formula 1, they’ve always had a big voice. Certainly when I came into Formula 1, Ron Dennis was extremely passionate on every topic and had something to say on everything.
“So, it would be a shame to need to go behind a secret ballot – but a team has a right to request that. If that’s what it needs to take independent votes, then we don’t have a major issue with it.”
Toto Wolff, Mercedes: “I really find it very positive that McLaren and Zak have expressed their opinions. Also, on controversial topics. I think it needs more outspoken-ness like Zak has done in this letter. I found it overall very good.
“In terms of the secret ballot, it’s very easy. You have seen in the past that Toro Rosso has voted like Red Bull, probably without any exceptions, and Haas has gone the Ferrari way. In our case, we have never tried to influence a team.
“Obviously, things have been discussed when it was a common topic, like on the power unit. It’s clear that teams vote with each other and none of the teams would vote against their own interest in terms of chassis regulations. So, the idea of the secret ballot is good.
“I doubt that Franz [Tost, AlphaTauri boss] is not going to take instructions, and neither will Guenther [Steiner, Haas boss] not take instructions but the attempt is obviously good: no team should be really being influenced by any affiliate or any supplier.”
Marcin Budkowski, Alpine: “We are an independent team and therefore we actually don’t have an issue with other people seeing what we are voting for because our positions are clear and well known to the FIA, F1 and the other teams. But not everybody is in this comfortable position of being able to vote in a completely independent way and this is exactly what Zak raised.
“We’re in favour, not because it’s going to change anything for us but because we believe that every team should be voting for their best interests, what’s best for them. And we’ve seen certain situations in the past, ones that Zak referred to, where some teams seem to be voting against their own interests and that’s not good for Formula 1.
“We need to keep the balance right and you can’t have teams voting against their interests because of affiliations.”
Laurent Mekies, Ferrari: “The secret ballot option is in the governance, has been in the governance for a long while. It’s just a fact that perhaps we didn’t use it very often or certainly in the last few years we haven’t done so. It’s good to be able to use it.
“It’s already a mechanism that is in the governance with the FIA and F1 so we are in favour of it. Whoever is not comfortable with an item that needs to be voted, it should raise a hand and make sure we get a secret ballot. If it’s like that all the time, we are always happy, so for us it’s a good thing for the sport and we’re fully supportive.”
