Racing Point look at other teams: 'Renault and McLaren copy Mercedes'

Racing Point has been in the news a lot this year, mostly because their car looks suspiciously similar to the winning car of Mercedes in 2019. The FIA has therefore tightened up the rules and fined the team. According to technical director Andrew Green, it was never the intention to copy Mercedes in its entirety.

"It did make a huge difference to how the car works. Because we had only done small experiments, we were never really convinced. Now we can really see the benefits. Our plan was actually to try this this season. It was a temporary solution before we got a completely new car in 2021, which is now 2022," explains Green. Auto, Motor und Sport.

Token system disadvantage for Racing Point

"We have said from the outset that we will only take the concepts of the 2019 Mercedes as a starting point. We have added the rear suspension of the 2020 Mercedes in Russia, because we are also going to get the Mercedes gearbox, and otherwise we are going to have problems''. According to the other teams, Racing Point has the advantage of being able to renew parts without the cost of tokens. For the teams this is a reason to question the efficiency of the token system.

However, Green does not see any problems. "All we are doing is making a 2019 car into a 2020 car. The rest did this at the beginning of the season. They want us to keep on driving with 2019 parts, while they are already putting new things on the car, is that fair?", Green wonders. Green even thinks Racing Point will experience drawbacks of the token system.

McLaren and Renault copy Mercedes?

Because the new transmission of the Mercedes car has changed so much, Racing Point have to use tokens to put the new transmission on the car. "We have to use our tokens and we don't really have a choice. Green mainly looks at what the other teams are doing and sees that Renault and McLaren do have striking upgrades. 

"McLaren has got a new nose and front wing, which is clearly based on that of Mercedes. Surely that is copying, too? Renault has also copied the entire front wing from Mercedes. Only Racing Point is apparently not allowed to copy. The teams that shout the loudest that we are wrong, copy the most themselves", concludes Green.