Horner: 'F1 must take a clear stance on copying behaviour'

Discussions are currently going on about the legality of the Racing Point, which would have copied too much from the 2019 Mercedes. Renault has protested about this, but the Racing Point team claims that nothing is wrong with their design. Everything would have gone according to the regulations. The verdict on the protest is still a while away, but according to Christian Horner F1 needs clarification.

Identical parts

There are certain parts in a Formula 1 car that the regulations prescribe that the teams must explicitly develop them themselves. According to Racing Point, that has gone completely according to the rules with their current car, but the 'brake ducts' are a big questionmark for Renault - as they are too similar to those of Mercedes where the rules don't allow it.

What makes it even more complex is that Formula 1 currently works with tokens for specific upgrades, so that teams continue to work in the same field in terms of development. But customer teams have an advantage in this, because they don't have to use their tokens if they get an upgrade from their supplier. That offers more room for development compared to teams that design everything themselves.

That's a favourable outcome between Mercedes and Racing Point, the same goes for Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri. Nevertheless, Christian Horner says that Formula 1 needs to be more clear about what is allowed and what isn't.

Motorsport.com asked Christian Horner and he said: "It all has to do with each other and that will have to be clarified. At the moment there is quite a bit of copying going on, as we see at Racing Point and Mercedes. The question is: do we want to go down this road?" This brings a dilemma, because according to Horner it has two potential outcomes.

"If that's the case, you'll get teams that will become more and more similar. If that is not the case, you get teams that will have to operate completely independently of each other. That's more or less the decision that the championship and the FIA are facing at the moment," says Horner.