P1racenews AI automatic summary:
In recent weeks noise has been made over Red Bull’s close ties with AlphaTauri – but Christian Horner has played down criticism of the relationship.
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner defended the close relationship between Red Bull and AlphaTauri, downplaying recent criticism. The teams have collaborated since Red Bull purchased Minardi and rebranded it as Toro Rosso in 2006. Other teams reportedly called for new rules to limit the extent of their ties, but Horner compared it to existing affiliations between Ferrari and Mercedes and their customer teams. He emphasized that the quality of people within the team will determine performance, pointing out that McLaren has used the supplied tools better than its supplier in the second half of the year. Horner also stated that the current situation within the Red Bull family is far from the controversy caused by Racing Point (now Aston Martin) when it unveiled a car similar to the Mercedes car. He pointed out that there are fundamental differences between the AlphaTauri and Red Bull Racing cars, and cited Aston Martin and McLaren as examples of teams with closer concepts.
