McLaren CEO Zak Brown has outlined the conditions he would put on allowing customer cars back in Formula 1.
As the sport looks to help teams who may struggle to survive the financial fallout from the coronavirus, Red Bull boss Christian Horner touted the idea as an “extreme” measure to reduce costs while allowing those teams to remain competitive.
Quickly, however, the ever-proud independent constructor that is McLaren rejected any possibility of allowing others to simply buy older spec chassis’ from bigger rivals.
Now though, Brown says if Red Bull and Ferrari, who later also supported Horner’s suggestion, are serious about supplying customer cars they shouldn’t use it as a money-making plan.
“I would say if we went that direction – because those customer cars, a year-old car gets kind of thrown away – then I’d be advocating that they should donate those cars if they really want to,” he told Motorsport.com.
“There’s no cost to them. They’ve got all the stuff they’ve done, the R&D, they have the spares, then they should give it to their customers and not charge them.
“That wouldn’t be costing them money and then if they really have the intention of saving money from the customer teams, give them the car.”
The McLaren boss is also clear allowing the idea to go ahead would only be as a temporary, emergency measure.
“If it’s about cost and that’s their solution, then I think it’s a band-aid solution because when you come out of then allowing customer cars, then you’re right back to where you are.
“The new normal is not going to be what the old normal was, so it feels to me like a band-aid fix.
“It may solve the problem for a year or two, but then we’re right back to where we were.”
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One argument Red Bull’s Horner put forward though, is that it made little sense to oppose customer cars when teams like Haas are already buying in some parts and others, such as Racing Point, are simply trying to copy the top teams.
“You know I’m not a fan of customer cars. Everyone talks about the DNA of Formula 1, and that is people being their own constructors,” Brown commented.
“I think people have pushed the boundaries on that recently, where they may have built their own car, but they built someone else’s car. I think that’s something that needs to be addressed.”