Racing Point continues controversial plan: "According to the rules it's allowed"

F1 News

17 October 2020 at 17:33
Last update 17 October 2020 at 21:46
  • GPblog.com

Racing Point has had a lot of criticism this season because it has copied too much of the 2019 Mercedes. For next year, the team wants to take advantage from a rule regarding upgrades for next year, which Andrew Green says is allowed.

Even before the start of the season, the RP20 of Racing Point already had several designations: the pink Mercedes, Tracing Point and so on. Basically, the car of the team was very similar to the 2019 Mercedes car. In fact, according to the FIA, the car looked too much like it, so the team was punished and points were deducted in the constructors' championship.

Now the team is once again facing the wrath of the competition because it wants to take advantage of an arrangement that was discussed prior to the season. To save costs, teams are only allowed to use tokens to make specific adjustments to the car. An exception is made for teams that are still driving with the 2019 parts from their supplier, of which Racing Point is one. They would be allowed to upgrade their rear suspension and gearbox without using tokens.

No problem according to the FIA

The other teams aren't happy about that, because Lawrence Stroll's team is already very fast. Technical Director Andrew Green however isn't planning on changing course. "I think we can continue with that. The rules allow it and so we will continue with the plans. We've also checked with the FIA ​​and they don't think there is a problem," explained Green to Motorsport.com.

"The regulations allow teams to upgrade their cars to the 2020 specifications, so that seems fair to us. We chose to drive the 2019 suspension before the corona crisis, and that shouldn't be used against us now. We need to be able to run our car with the same specifications as the rest of the teams," concludes the technical director. Racing Point is not the only team with this plan, as the same rules apply to AlphaTauri.