Former Le Mans winner: 'Red Bull and AlphaTauri may find loophole'
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We should not be surprised, according to Richard Bradley, former winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, if AlphaTauri suddenly competes in the top-five of the constructors' classification next year. Bradley does not rule out Red Bull finding a loophole that allows its sister team to virtually copy the RB19.
Rumours are getting louder that AlphaTauri wants to adopt as many parts as possible from Red Bull next year, instead of developing them themselves. This would make the 2024 car look hugely similar to the successful RB19. The Faenza-based racing stable wanted to become more independent in recent years, but that has not benefited its performance. This year at the summer break, the team is tenth and last in the constructors' championship.
How far can AlphaTauri go?
But next year, everything could be different, says Bradley. “Honestly, with the regulations staying fairly stagnant next year, it really won’t make that big a difference. So this year’s Red Bull will still be very, very competitive next year, no question, because of the level it’s at." However, a team is not allowed to simply copy another car, as we saw in 2020 when Racing Point used brake ducts that were the same as Mercedes. The British formation received a hefty penalty for that at the time. Certain parts a team must produce and develop itself.
But: maybe Red Bull will come up with a solution. "“It’s a different one with Red Bull and AlphaTauri slash Hugo Boss, or whatever it’s going to end up becoming, because Red Bull actually is the funding thing behind AlphaTauri. I don’t know how the licencing works. I don’t know how the naming of the licencing works and that’s something that only the FIA will know. But there might be a loophole there, whereby they can get away with giving it to AlphaTauri purely because they literally own and fund the team," Bradley states in the podcast On Track GP.
He continues: "So then you could argue that it’s actually coming from their own source and everything and it’s not a copycat thing. The copycat thing would be literally where someone just takes a lot of pictures and does a direct copy of it. So there could be some loopholes. If they do take that Red Bull next year, they will be seriously competitive, no question at all.”