Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is unfazed by Red Bull and AlphaTauri working closer together, with him admitting that he hasn’t “thought about it much”.
AlphaTauri have kept it no secret that after two seasons of following their own development plans, the side are set to strengthen their ties with Red Bull, by taking as many transferable parts as they legally can.
It’s all part of the Faenza-based team’s upcoming rebrand, which will take place over the winter break.
Some believe their partnership strengthened in the closing stages of the recently completed 2023 season, as AlphaTauri bizarrely introduced a completely new floor at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
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It was speculated that this was done to support Red Bull with the design of their 2024 car, leading to suggestions that AlphaTauri will replicate the iconic ‘Pink Mercedes’ of 2020.
In 2020, Racing Point – now known as Aston Martin – were fined and docked points for copying Mercedes’ rear brake ducts, which resulted in them being dubbed as the ‘Pink Mercedes’.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has stressed that AlphaTauri aren’t set to replicate what Racing Point illegally did in 2020, despite the Milton Keynes-based squad sharing an increasing number of parts with their sister side.
Whilst the speculation could be of interest to Wolff, at the moment, he’s not particularly bothered.
He admits that at the season finale at the Yas Marina Circuit, he was more pleased to see Yuki Tsunoda qualify in sixth, given how challenging 2023 was for AlphaTauri.
“I have to be honest,” Wolff said as reported by Grandpx.news, “I only saw that (Yuki) Tsunoda was sixth in qualifying in Abu Dhabi, which makes me happy for the Alpha Tauri fans to end the season on a high.”
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Wolff hasn’t yet looked too deeply into how much stronger Red Bull’s partnership has become with AlphaTauri as it’s something he hasn’t put much “thought” into, although he’s certain that others are definitely already investigating the closeness of the ties.
With Mercedes having several customer teams, Wolff will know what parts can and can’t be transferred but for the time being he’s not looked into any of it.
“This is a transparent world,” Wolff added. “I haven’t looked at any of the parts yet but I’m sure others will. But to be honest, I haven’t thought about it much.”