Horner shares ‘copycat’ opinion: “I don’t particularly have a problem with it”

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner has weighed in his opinion on the ‘copycat’ debate about Racing Point F1’s RP20 car’s similarity to Mercedes’ championship winning 2019 W10.

Racing Point launched the RP20 on Monday but upon turning up to pre-season testing on Wednesday there were concerns about the car’s similarity to Mercedes’ W10 from the previous year.
 
In particular the nose and the front wing of their 2020 challenger looks near identical with technical director Andy Green, stating that they drew ‘inspiration’ from the Silver Arrows, who provide them with engines and gearbox parts.
 
But Horner has expressed his opinion on the ‘copycat’ matter, not having a big issue with team collaborations and similarities.

“I think collaborations do make sense because otherwise teams like AlphaTauri and Racing Point, Haas and even Sauber [Alfa Romeo], if they couldn’t buy suspension and gearboxes, that’s all R&D that they’re going to have to conduct themselves with big amounts of resource,” He told the-race.com.

“Of course, some teams look like they’ve gone further in their cloning than others, but so long as it complies with the rules I don’t particularly have a problem with it.

“For Liberty, it creates more competitive grid, for the teams it makes Formula 1 more affordable.

“Of course, you don’t want 10 cars that all look the same, but I think there’s elements of the car that is transferable like suspension and gearboxes, for example, that make a lot of sense.”

Red Bull are currently the only official team with a confirmed ‘B-Team’ in Alpha Tauri that has helped produce drivers from the feeder series to the parent team.