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-   -   Racing Point’s Pink Mercedes Controversy (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/intl-motorsport/224833-racing-point-s-pink-mercedes-controversy.html)

There was drama on Sunday evening at the Red Bull Ring after the Styrian Grand Prix when Renault submitted a formal protest against Racing Point about the legality of their RP20 cars.

The Silverstone-based team’s new car – which uses the Mercedes power unit and gearbox – drew a lot of attention at pre-season testing back in February when it was dubbed ‘the pink Mercedes’ for its apparent similarities to the Silver Arrows W10 car which won the championship in 2019.

Racing Point insisted at the time that while they had followed the same design philosophy as Mercedes – and even used photographs to try to mimic some parts of the car – the RP20 was designed in house, and they had not broken any rules.

“I can tell you absolutely, categorically all those designs are Racing Point from absolute scratch,” Racing Point Technical Director Andrew said in Barcelona. “There has been no transfer of information on listed parts from Mercedes. They have never contemplated it, we have never asked for it.


Specifically, Renault protested the front and rear brake ducts of the Racing Point RP20 on the grounds that they appear identical to those of last year’s Mercedes W10. This year – for the first time – brake ducts are classed as listed parts, which means they should have been developed by the team of whichever car they are fitted to (or bought from an outside supplier, not an existing F1 team).

An image of RP20’s front wing



An image of W10’s front wing



Now, the real question that lies here - Is Racing Point’s RP20 a repainted Mercedes-AMG W10 and has there been any listed parts that have been shared by the companies?

Personally, I don’t think that this is just a W10 repainted into a RP20. Yes, the design maybe very similar and Racing Point’s pace is quite surprising this year but I feel is more like a borrowing someone’s homework and then changing it up a bit so that the teacher doesn’t know stupid: situation. Investigations are being carried out by the FIA and the answers to the question will be given very soon.

A video explaining the controversy.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X_I_ubyk918

BHPians, please share your thoughts on this.

NEWS and images source: www.formula1.com

I believe it is Renault who are completely off pace this year and are now acting like crybabies. Racing Point was always vocal from the very beginning that their car was inspired by the all conquering W10. It was cleared before the season began, and before the start of each individual race. Nothing wrong with trying to copy the champions. Credit to them for doing a good job within the regulations and being well on pace and also not breaking down. This formal protest will most likely be scuttled very soon, while RP is well on course to get a solid points haul this season.

Let's check the facts here!

Is copying the sole issue here? Not at all!

No matter how weak or small a team is, it still is a collection of highly talented and driven individuals. Ask Aldo Costa if you doubt it! He started his legendary career with the humble Minardi. So, blatant copying like that by Racing Point will surely make the team a laughing stock in the paddock. It is said ‘Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz' was heard quite a bit from the pitwall during the tests earlier this season! lol: And that's shameful for the team! But still not illegal. Teams always copy each other!

The similarity between RP20 and W10 is really uncanny. But it looks skin deep too based on this protest!


What Renault is contesting here is a 'listed part'. The brake duct to be exact. A listed part cannot be a copy as per FIA. Each team must design it themselves or hold the IP if its outsourced.

And the brake duct is a critical component - it affects braking (duh!), tyre temperature and underbody aero. So, its very very important to get that right for the car to be consistently fast.

And Renault must have some solid evidence here! Since FIA has found the protest admissible and it wasn't thrown out. Usually, that's what happens when there is no merit or substance in the protest. Now, the onus is on Racing Point & Mercedes to come up with suitable evidence to fight this protest and clear their respective names.

What adds fuel are the following facts:
1) Both Mercedes and Racing Point use the same contractor for the brake duct. But that is totally okay as long as both teams do not have access to each other's design. Sharing suppliers is not at all uncommon in F1. After all, there are only a few companies who can deliver.

2) Toto is a close friend and business associate of Stroll senior. And Mercedes is a (minority) shareholder of Aston Martin. And Racing Point will be Aston Martin F1 next year!

So, there is enough traction for the story here for some smoke and fire! :)

Source for the pic

It's not a good look for F1 to be honest. If you could just copy your top competitors so blatantly for a guaranteed reward, why would you take the risk of innovating any more?

It's funny how people are suggesting that it's okay since this is within the rules. But remember how it isn't okay even without any rules when China creates its own Evoque, or when Mahindra does its copycat Jeep (Roxor)... The list goes on.

I think last year people had similar concern about the Haas being very similar to the Ferrari of the previous year. But it was not as much evident as the RP to Merc of this year and was more to do with the mechanicals than the aerodynamics. The resemblance of the RP to Merc is uncanny. I love the fact that Racing point is being referred to as "Tracing point" :uncontrol

I dint know this was the first time brake ducts have been classd as listed parts. Anyways, FIAhas now seald the evidence, including parts from the cars to investigate so let us see what happens.

lol:

While it may legally be ok for Racing Point, its ethically not right of them to copy the design.

But its a very clever use of their resources. With a new car coming in, base this year's car on the Merc and use your staff + money for the new regulations coming in 2022.

Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll is a part-owner of Racing Point. Lawrence Stroll’s complete investment in Aston Martin has been fulfilled. As a result, the Canadian billionaire is officially the executive chairman of the iconic British manufacturer as of today. Stroll reflected that his primary goal was to ensure Aston Martin was competitive in its F1 return next year.

Toto Wolff has bought nearly 14.5m shares in Aston Martin. Toto Wolff and Lawrence Stroll get along very well and share a healthy relationship. These sequences of events led to several publications speculating about a stint at Aston Martin for Toto Wolff.

The Mercedes F1 team also have engine and gearbox supply and technical co-operation agreements with Racing Point. This move inevitably raise questions among other F1 teams, some of whom are uncomfortable about the apparent closeness of Mercedes and Racing Point, and of Wolff and Stroll as personal friends.

Maybe Toto has exchanged Mercedes 'SECRETS' with Lawrence against Aston Martin 'SHARES' stupid:

Isn't this very similar with the IPL/BCCI stakeholder nexus

It is TRACING point , there is no racing there. Even the humble Minardis and Jordans raced their heart out with shoestring budgets. Now owned by Stroll who is close to Herr Toto , the whole thing looks fishy.

Also Renault's allegations on Tracing Point I think is headed by Marcin Budkowsky, he of former FIA and is now an ED at Renault. Surely he know how and where to tap into !

Leads to an unhealthy trend where the true blood racing teams like McLaren, Williams and to some extent Ferrari (unless they flex muscles into Alfa Romeo ) will suffer and we are the ones to suffer seeing crappy teams like TR.P, Haas's of the world.

The moment I look at the Tr.P cars I start swearing, too bad I can't utter those words here and have myself infracted lol:.

I'm back to watching F1 again as it's live sports, but the trends are clear that it will again be a Mercedes romp with Lewis Hamilton winning the World Championship.

The exciting racing is all in the midfield and Renault is quite shit as compared to Racing Point, Mclaren and they are just sore losers considering their massive budget, marquee name amounting to nothing.

Copying is not considered bad as long as you are not successful. If Racing Point copied and ended up on the back of the grid, there surely would have been no complaints.

This year, like many recent years is a battle the second position in the constructors championship. The controversy is not because Racing Point copied some designs. I think it is only because other teams feel that they could end up challenging for second place in the championship.

Racing Point fined and docked points for copying elements of Mercedes car.

Racing Point have been docked 15 points and fined 400,000 euros (£361,000) for illegally copying parts of last year's Mercedes car.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/53693249

Wow! They got away very lightly, didn't they? :)

The icing on the cake is the fact that Racing Point can continue to run those parts! No wonder the other teams have raised protests against the ruling.

The brake duct episode really gave us proper insights into borrowed parts eh? Watched the video on 'The Race' channel which tried to give a clear picture.

I think Racing Point got away with minor punishment because the stewards figured that their 'intention' was not to cheat but had taken the design from Mercedes when it was not a listed part.

Even Renault got their points docked due to 'auto' brake-bias system last year. Still remember the 'Stepney gate' scandal when McLaren's Mike Coughlan tried to get that technical dossier from Ferrari's Nigel Stepney and as a result McLaren was docked of all constructor points.

How the RP20 is not the W10 shown here