By Rohan Santhosh
BWT Racing Point F1 Team, commonly known as Racing Point, is a British motor racing team that has entered into the Formula One World Championship. The team is based in Silverstone, United Kingdom and competes under a British licence. Formerly known as “Force India”, the team was renamed in February 2019. The team made their debut at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix. Drivers Sergio Perez and Lance stroll are the drivers for the team in the 2020 season.
Racing Point has always been an average team, scoring 73 points in the 2019 and coming 7th in the WCC(World Constructors’ Championship), being mostly carried by Sergio Perez for the whole season. However, when the season resumed after the pause due to the coronavirus outbreak, the team seemed to have turned their luck around, with Perez coming 6th at the Austrian GP and Perez and Stroll coming 6th and 7th respectively in the Styrian GP. This caused rumblings about the legality of the teams latest car, the RP20. The car already sources its gearbox and engine from Mercedes, but the RP20 was dubbed in February as a “pink Mercedes” after its similarities to the Mercedes W10 which won the championship in 2019.
Racing Point has never denied that their cars draw inspiration from Mercedes’ car and have even gone so far as to say that they, like all teams, have commissioned photographers to observe the Mercedes cars. Renault was discontent as it lists the parts on cars which cannot be borrowed from other teams. The design of these “listed parts” can be outsourced but they cannot be outsourced to other competitors in F1. Renault protests that the RP20 is not Racing Point’s design but is the Mercedes’ design. Renault wants the FIA to inspect every “listed part” of the RP20 to ensure that every part of it complies to the regulation and are not borrowed from Mercedes. The FIA has to decide whether the design of the RP20 is Racing Point’s intellectual property or if it is a copy of the Mercedes W10. The primary part which Renault is protesting about is the RP20’s front and rear brake ducts. Brake ducts were a recent addition to the “listed parts” for the first time this year. The race stewards ruled that the protest was admissible and that the FIA would impound the offending items, the brake ducts, and ask Mercedes for samples of their 2019 ducts to compare. Gary Anderson, an ex-F1 designer, wrote that brake ducts would be one of the most difficult parts to copy since most of the complex design is in what cannot be seen or photographed from the outside.
Though rumours were stirring in the previous weekend at the Austrian GP, Mclaren’s Andreas Seidl says that he does not believe that there are any grounds for protest. This suggests that Renault has some conclusive evidence since it would be unusual to launch a protest without it. Racing Point insists that during the off-season, the FIA conducted some checks and that they were satisfied and that the car was legal. The reason why Renault chose to protest after the Styrian GP is unknown but it could be to avoid clouding F1’s anticipated return of season amid the pandemic. It could also be because it took this much time for Renault to come across evidence for the protest.
The protest comes as no surprise to anybody since Racing Point seems to have found a shortcut to occupying the space between the midfield and the frontrunners. The RP20 hasn’t lived up to its full potential in the first 2 races of the season’s return but its pace means it’s sure to prove to be formidable to its rivals. Whether or not Racing Point is penalised, months of rumours are about to come to an end and the truth about the RP20’s legality will finally be brought to light and if Racing Point’s newest car crosses the line.
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