Brown said: "No other sport to my knowledge allows co-ownership of two teams that compete against each other.

As the owner of the United Autosports sportscar team, he obviously knows that this isn't true.

For decades Audi and Porsche compete in various motorsports against each other. In IMSA Porsche and Lamborghini compete against each other with no one helping the other.

In Formula E (where this season McLaren also competes in, so he also knows this) there are two cases of works teams with "customer" teams that have a different car brand as title sponsor. For Stellantis "DS Penske" is the works team and "Maserati MSG" is the customer. Porsche has its own team and there is customer team Cupra Kiro which also relies on title sponsor Cupra, a sister VW brand. This season and in the past, Porsche and its customers have very openly worked with each other near the end of the seasons when championships battles were close.

Red Bull and Toro Rosso are nowhere near the Formula E situation. The closest thing in somewhat recent past was that Ricciardo fastest lap once.