How Brown's 'Tire Water' bottle carried serious point about F1 protests
Brown says teams should file formal protests if they have doubts about the legality of rival cars
Zak Brown says the ‘Tire Water!’ drink bottle he displayed on the pit wall in Miami on Friday was a dig at Red Bull boss Christian Horner on what he calls a serious issue of teams making accusations about potential illegalities on rival cars.
In 2024 there were suggestions from the Red Bull camp that McLaren was using water in its tyres as a strategy for cooling.
Brown says he’s frustrated that teams can make allegations that cannot be backed up, but which potentially do damage to the accused.
He says that teams should make a formal protest, and that to ensure that they are not frivolous the fee should have a potential impact on the cost cap.
“My new water bottle, so that was poking fun in a serious issue, which is teams have historically made allegations of other teams,” he said. “Most recently, one team focuses on that strategy more than others.
“And I think that there's a proper way to protest a team at the end of the race, and you have to make it formal, disclose where it comes from, you put some money down. I think that process should be extended to all allegations, to stop the frivolous allegations which are intended only to be a distraction.
“So if you had to put up some money and put on paper and not back channel, what your allegations are. I think that would be a way to clean up the bogus allegations that happen in this sport, which are not very sporting.
“And if someone does believe there's a technical issue, by all means, you're entitled to it. Put it on paper, put your money down. You should come against your cost cap if it turns out you're wrong, and I think that will significantly stop the bogus allegations that come from some teams in the sport.”
Asked what sort of number the fee should be he said: “It needs to be meaningful from a I'm choosing to spend money on that instead of my own racing car. We're all right at the limit of the budget cap.
“I know how much we will not waste a dollar on anything that we don't think brings performance. So it's probably 25 grand.
“If it was kind of would I spend 25 grand on a distraction tactic or development of my own race car, I'd spend 25 grand on my race car all day long. So it doesn't need to be hundreds of thousands, but it needs to be meaningful enough that you're taking away performance you're spending on your car.”