Credits: IMAGO / HochZwei

Psychological battles are as much a part of Formula 1 as the battle on the track and it often leads to bitterness between rival teams. McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner are the perfect case in point as their rivalry has gotten more intense and bitter with time.

However, their rivalry was not always bitter, as per Brown. In a conversation on the ‘F1: Chequered Flag’ podcast, Brown opened up about how he used to be friends with Horner back in the day. The 52-year-old mentioned that he has known Horner for almost 25-30 years and they weren’t always bitter enemies.

He recalled a time when they used to race together and got along with each other pretty well. He revealed that things turned sour between the two only after Red Bull breached the cost cap in the very first year of its implementation and refused to take any responsibility. Brown remarked,

“I think everyone goes about their business in different ways, some things are similar, some things are different. I believe in transparency, I believe in putting your hand up when something goes wrong and these are things, whether it was the cost cap and the excuses behind that, I never really heard, ‘We just got it wrong,’ I heard excuses and not taking kind of ownership.”

What really put off Brown is the fact that he felt Red Bull had attacked the integrity of the sport as a whole and according to him, that’s not something he or McLaren stand for.

Brown sees cost cap as something all the teams should take seriously

The McLaren team boss slammed Red Bull for making excuses rather than taking ownership after being found guilty of breaching the cost cap. Red Bull had said that they did not consider the catering costs as part of the budget cap and it was this misunderstanding that led to the team exceeding the budget cap by approximately $2.3 million.

Brown believes that the teams not only have the responsibility to protect their own brand but also the integrity of the sport. “When someone breaches the cost cap and doesn’t seem to kind of take it seriously, that’s kinda hitting at the integrity and core of the sport. So I felt it was very important that we all take the cost cap very seriously,” Brown added.

He went on to explain how much the cost cap has helped the sport. It has not only made the racing exceptionally close, something that had been missing for a long time but also helped create a lot of value for the shareholders.