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McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has confirmed that the team has no intentions of protesting the legality of the Racing Point team's 2020 car, the RP20.
The car drew significant criticism from rivals during the pre-season tests in Barcelona last February, due to its close resemblance of Mercedes' 2018 title winner, the W09.
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Some team members and onlookers even dubbed the car as a 'pink Mercedes' due to how much of a resemblance it bore to the 2018 W09.
On Friday, Racing Point technical director Andrew Green revealed that the FIA had visited the team's factory at Silverstone to check the car against data from the Mercedes team and that it was satisfied the team had not done anything illegal.
Some teams, such as Renault, admitted that it could not deny the possibility of a protest of the car once the season gets underway, with Cyril Abiteboul claiming that the car was like a piece of 'forged artwork,'
However, Seidl said that McLaren is not thinking of doing over the car, stating that the team sees no point in holding such a protest and that the team currently do not have the resources to protest against the car.
In 2021, McLaren will return to engine supplier Mercedes for the first time since 2014, the same supplier that is currently being used by Racing Point.
"McLaren is an independent racing car manufacturer, and we want to stay that way," Seidl said in a recent media conference video.
"We pursue ambitious goals and we want to achieve them with hard work. I am sure that everything about this car is legal.
"I see no basis for a protest. And besides, I don't have time to waste my energy on it. For me, other issues are more important - like the upcoming budget limit."
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Replies (5)
Login to replydenis1304
Posts: 284
I would cut just one nose cone from Mercedes and RP to compare internal structure.... although Mercedes can't be that stupid to just copy/paste design to RP
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
There are actually quite a few parts they could share between each other without issues, like with Alfa Tauri and Red Bull, and Ferrari and their concubines HAAS and Alfa Romeo. But AFAIK, RP didn't quite go that way, instead opting to study the car visually and via telemetry to ape it. AFAIK, that's A-OK with the rules, provided they didn't get a hold of data Spygate-style.
JuJuHound
Posts: 352
Short notice
McLaren has no intention of protesting Racing Point's RP20 (...) In 2021, McLaren will return to engine supplier Mercedes
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
The reality is that there isn't anything to be protested. The rules don't say that parts can't be shared and slightly adjusted does it?
The reality is also that Red Bull has been doing this shamelessly with Toro Rosso for many years.
To be honest, if they truly race each other I have no problem. I do have a problem with Toro Rosso moving out of the way for Red Bull, or Alfa for Ferrari
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Actually, they do. And it's in part due to how the Red Bull-Toro Rosso relationship panned out. You are only allowed to intentionally share a few select parts of the chassis and car, but a whole car would be a direct veto, potentially disqualification from a season if it was to be found out. This isn't what is happening here, AFAIK. RP worked around this by simply replicating the Merc' design based on what data they could gather, Merc' haven't given them any of these components.