F1 News
'Renault got a tip from former Racing Point employees about the brakes'
- GPblog.com
It's the week of truth for Racing Point. The car that looks like a straight copy of the Mercedes from 2019, received a protest from Renault with the brake ducts as their main subject.
The brakes of Racing Point
Racing Point has been under a magnifying glass since the winter tests in Barcelona. The team came up with a car that looked suspiciously similar to the 2019 Mercedes. Surely that much shouldn't be copied, many teams wondered? Renault has made a protest in recent weeks which is focused on the brakes.
Renault specifically chose the brakes because this would be very difficult to copy and would therefore be a good indicator of whether Racing Point actually had help from Mercedes. Racing Point claims to this day that it has used pictures and not the knowledge of people at Mercedes.
The Pink Mercedes
As far as the brakes are concerned, Racing Point is now in a tight spot because it would have used the brakes of the 2019 Mercedes. Until 31 December, 'brake ducts' were not on the list of parts you have the teams have to develop themselves, but from 2020 on they are. The question is when Racing Point got these parts and to what extent the 2020 design was made by the team itself.
The fact that Racing Point acknowledges, this seems to confirm Renault's suspicions. Racing Point doesn't only seem to have had pictures, but also more real Mercedes parts in their hands. In the case of the brakes this should be allowed until 2019 and since it is a component from 2019 Racing Point believes that the rules of 2019 should apply.
Who ratted out the whole thing?
The question remains where the limit lies in taking over someone else's car. The constructors' championship in Formula 1 is all about who can design the best car. Racing Point has chosen a different path and the question now is what Formula 1 wants for the future of the sport.
However, a salient detail in this case, is that Auto, Motor und Sport is also able to report that on the paddock it is rumoured that Renault has received a tip from a former employee at Racing Point. Employees who left the team are said to have ratted out the whole thing and they can also testify in the lawsuit against their old employer.