Visa RB wants to purchase even more parts from Red Bull

Peter Bayer, executive director of Visa RB, calls for expanding the list of components that championship participants can purchase from other teams.

In particular, Haas’s business model was initially based on close cooperation with Ferrari, while Aston Martin and Williams also have contracts with Mercedes, receiving more than just power units.

“We can buy certain parts, we do it and install them on our car,” Speedcafe quotes Bayer. “I think the main advantage of this approach is that we can focus on other tasks, because we simply do not have enough production capacity, budget and people.

For example, we don’t have design engineers developing the suspension. The last such specialist was lured from us by Frederic Vasseur, the head of the Ferrari team – it is clear that he was a very good professional!

Actually, we already knew how to design the suspension before, but then we decided that we wanted to buy these parts because it would allow us to concentrate our efforts on other components and stay competitive.”

At one time this practice was allowed to reduce the costs of second-tier teams, in fact, to give them the chance to survive and at the same time maintain a certain competitiveness, but there is no talk of a complete transition to customer machines .

“There were actually two reasons. One of these was to support the teams financially. The second was an attempt to create conditions for more intense competition on the circuits,” Bayer continued. – But if you look at the results of last year’s championship and add up the points earned by the teams that took the last four places in the Constructors’ Championship, it turns out that they earned fewer points than the team that took sixth place .

Now add up the points earned by these five teams, and this sum will be less than the points earned by the 5th place team. What does this mean? This means that the teams have completely different capabilities. Look at the results this year: we now have three groups. We have Max Verstappen, then a group of drivers from 2nd to 10th and those in the second ten.

For us, eleventh place is equivalent to pole position, because if all the cars from the top five teams reach the finish, we have no chance. We have to hope that someone makes a mistake, someone has technical problems, otherwise it will be very difficult for the five teams in the second level to earn points.”

According to Bayer, he has already met with Stefano Domenicali, Formula 1’s president and CEO, and discussed with him the possibility of expanding the list of components that teams are allowed to purchase externally. Visa RB’s interest is understandable, because it works with Red Bull Racing, the best team in the championship at the moment.

However, the close cooperation between these two teams is raising more and more questions in the paddock, because both belong to the Austrian company Red Bull. On the one hand, Visa RB sources certain components from Milton Keynes, a process closely monitored by the FIA; on the other hand, the two teams can handle their personnel much more freely than their rivals and exchange information, which is already more difficult to monitor.

However, Bayer believes that its rivals are worrying in vain: “Everything is clearly stated in the rules. Since I work for the FIA ​​​​I know how control is carried out. I understand that when teams are physically close together it is likely to create more opportunities, but in Britain the entire motorsport industry is concentrated in one region. I can get in the car and within five minutes I’m in a pub talking to a guy from the other team. That is why exactly the same processes take place here.”