Zak Brown will be furious when he discovers how Red Bull covered the cost of Yuki Tsunoda’s expensive Imola crash

McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner haven’t seen eye to eye very often over the past few seasons.

The drivers’ championship was fought between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris last season, pitting Red Bull and McLaren against each other for the first time in Zak Brown’s tenure.

McLaren took a massive step forward at last year’s Miami Grand Prix, leading to Norris’ first Formula 1 victory and a complete shift in the hierarchy in the paddock.

Team principal Andrea Stella went on to lead McLaren to the constructors’ championship that year, with Red Bull slipping to third despite Verstappen earning his fourth consecutive title.

However, there were plenty of skirmishes between the two teams that continue to this day.

McLaren were accused of using a mini-DRS after Oscar Piastri won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while Verstappen’s driving style was critiqued after being penalised twice in Mexico City for trying to defend from Norris.

The FIA have studied McLaren’s car this season to try and determine if they have broken any rules after numerous protests from Red Bull as they look to make up their deficit to the Woking-based team.

However, their rivalry might be about to take another turn and this time it involves Yuki Tsunoda.

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The role Racing Bulls played in Yuki Tsunoda’s Imola qualifying crash

A report from the Italian outlet RMC Motori has shared an intriguing detail about Tsunoda’s crash at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Tsunoda flipped his car on his first flying lap of Q1, leading to a host of repairs being made overnight and a pit lane start for the Japanese driver.

The report from RMC Motori has revealed that Tsunoda’s spare parts arrived at Bologna airport as part of the Red Bull development package.

It’s a fund that costs £12.65m-a-year (€15m), but intriguingly, is included under Racing Bulls’ costs under the Formula 1 budget cap.

Formula 1’s cost cap has been a controversial talking point in the paddock and this will only add to the question marks around it.

Red Bull and Racing Bulls have always shared a close relationship with the Faenza-based team since the Austrian energy drinks company bought Minardi in 2005.

They share a wind tunnel and Racing Bulls recently moved into a facility in Milton Keynes to be closer to their sister team.

However, it’s another reason why Brown will be furious with their ongoing relationship.

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Zak Brown has called out Red Bull and Racing Bulls’ relationship as a ‘real problem’

Speaking in an interview with Sky Sports F1 at the beginning of last season, Brown explained: “We have some work to do around the rules.

“I think the A-B team is a real problem moving forward. I think co-ownership, you don’t really have that in any other sport, and I think that provides a lot of conflict of interest.

“So now that we have a budget cap we need to be really a sport of total fairness and I think any time you have an entity that owns two teams, or an A and B relationship, I think it really starts to compromise the integrity of sporting fairness.

“That’s something that really needs to be tackled.”

Racing Bulls and Red Bull will continue to work as closely as possible given how much both teams benefit from the relationship.

Liam Lawson and Tsunoda’s seat swap was only made as straightforward as it was due to their partnership, and Isack Hadjar could earn a Red Bull promotion next season for the same reason.

Brown is unlikely to care about their driver decisions, but trying to find a workaround for F1’s strict cost cap is unlikely to go down well at McLaren’s Woking base.