McLaren weigh in on future of F1 A-B team model after Mekies replaces Horner

Andrea Stella says McLaren supports discussions over team transfers following Laurent Mekies’ immediate move from one Red Bull team to the other to replace Christian Horner.

But it’s a subject that the Italian insists is both “interesting” and “quite complex”.

Laurent Mekies replaced Christian Horner with immediate effect

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Red Bull dropped a bombshell on the motorsport world when it announced Horner had been sacked from his role as CEO and Red Bull Racing team principal last month.

The Briton was immediately replaced by Racing Bulls’ Mekies, with Alan Permane taking charge at the Faezna-based team.

Red Bull was in a fortunate position where it didn’t have to deal with gardening leave, or other delaying tactics to prevent sensitive intellectual property being passed between teams, as it owns both F1 outfits.

Days later, it emerged that Mekies’ move to Red Bull caught the FIA’s attention with motorsport’s governing body working on a rule tweak for F1 2026 to ban staff from instantly transferring between teams.

PlanetF1.com understands that will include a period of mandatory gardening leave, which will be laid out in Section F of next year’s revamped regulations. Section F will cover operational elements of the sport for items that fall outside the traditional headings.

McLaren team principal Stella is open to the discussion, as it extends to ensuring teams are fully independent.

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“This is an interesting topic and quite complex,” Stella replied to a question posed by PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher. “We have to be wary that we don’t approach it in too simplistic a way.

“Certainly, McLaren in the past have raised the question about team independence.

“It’s a question that should be discussed as part of putting the sport in a very solid, fair position so that any team that operates in a fully independent way is protected against the benefits that can be exploited in being dependent as teams from one another.

“At the moment, we at McLaren trust that the regulations in place and the way they are enforced are already a valid way of mitigating any potential risk associated with connections between teams, like changing from one team to the other from one day to the next.

“But definitely, we think this is a topic that can be part of constructive conversations in the future to see if there’s a way of approaching the matter of team independence in an evolved way compared to where we are at the moment.”

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has often criticised A-B teams, claiming it goes against fairness.

“We have some work to do around the rules,” he told Sky Sports last year.

“I think the A-B team is a real problem moving forward. I think co-ownership, you don’t really have that in any sport. And I think that provides a lot of conflict of interest.

“So now that we have a budget cap, we need to be really a sport of total and fairness (sic).

“And I think any time you have an entity that owns two teams, or an A or B relationship, I think it really starts to compromise the integrity of sporting fairness.

“That’s something that really needs to be tackled.”

McLaren is one of only two independent teams on the grid this season, together with Alpine.

However, the Enstone squad next year will have a technical deal beyond power unit supply from F1 2026, while Sauber will transform into Audi and Aston Martin will shed its Mercedes links to become Honda’s factory effort.

McLaren purchases its power units from Mercedes but has not other connection with the German marque.

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