Statement McLaren for retreating from protest: "Just needed some time"

McLaren was one of the four teams that announced around the anniversary of Formula 1 at Silverstone that it had the intention to protest against the car of Racing Point. However, when they had to make a final decision a few days later, the team dropped out. Why did they do that?

"We lodged our intention to appeal last weekend in order to simply gain more time in order to understand the details, and in order to also understand what F1 and the FIA wants to do with the overall topic," says team boss Andreas Seidl to Autosport.com.

Once the FIA had assured them that they would do everything in their power to curb copying behaviour in the future, the sock was off for McLaren. The team now wants to focus mainly on its own performance again, because at Silverstone and Barcelona it was again driven by that same Racing Point.

The other team that withdrew their intention to protest was Williams. That team already drives Mercedes engines and McLaren will do so from 2021. A coincidence not seen as such by many followers.