Racing Point ruffles more feathers with 2021 upgraded car
Racing Point's ability to upgrade its 2021 car with a rear-end package based on Mercedes' 2020 W11 has once again ruffled its rivals' feathers.
Racing Point was taken to the task earlier this year by several of its competitors and the FIA for fielding a car that was viewed as a clone of Mercedes 2019 W10.
The Silverstone-based squad was hit with a €400,000 fine and deducted 15 championship points by the governing body that found the team guilty of copying Mercedes' brake-ducts.
However, Racing Point's 2021 contender will rely once again on Mercedes componentry, specifically a 2020 gearbox and rear suspension elements.
Changes to F1's 2020 cars for next season are normally covered by a token system, but Racing Point has been authorized to upgrade its car to Mercedes' 2020 unlisted parts - components a team is not required to design and produce in-house - without using its two tokens, an exemption that hasn't gone down well with the outfit's rivals.
"I think we are not fully happy that there are teams that eventually can upgrade their entire package from a 2019 to a 2020 package" said Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto earlier this year.
"That I believe would be unfair, because the season with two tokens is similar for everybody. We’ve got only two tokens, and everybody should be limited to that."
But Racing Point technical director Andy Green defended his team's exemption that complies with the rules.
"The rules allow us to do it. We're going ahead and doing it, we've cleared it with the FIA, and they have no problem with us doing it," said the Racing Point tech boss.
"It’s an upgrade to 2020 suspension, it’s not an upgrade to 2021. What we’re running now is 2019.
"What they want to do is penalize us and keep us running two-year old parts rather than bring us up to date.
"The rules as written allow the teams to bring their cars up to the 2020 specification, which I think is only fair," added Green
"Just because we elected to run 2019 suspension before COVID started shouldn't be held against us.
"It's not like we're getting an advantage and bringing ‘21 parts of the car. It's only bringing it up to the same as they've got now.
"So we should be allowed to bring our car up to the same specification as everyone else has got."
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