Andrew Green, BWT Racing Point F1 Team‘s Technical Director, has revealed that the FIA have visited the team, to check the legality of the 2020 RP20 car.
The RP20 was unveiled by the team earlier this year during the pres-season testing, however, the car caused a stir due to similarity to the 2019 Mercedes AMG Petronas car, the W10.
The W10, went on to win the 2019 FIA Formula 1 World Championship title, in both the constructors and drivers championships.
There was also suggestions that some teams on the grid would protest the car at the 2020 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.
Renault Sport F1 Team, have since said they will not rule out challenges to the team, despite the visit by the FIA.
Green explained, during an interview with Motorsport.com, that the FIA have checked the car,
“We don’t really know what the ground is that they are thinking of protesting about,
“When the car launched, we talked to the FIA about it, the FIA came round to the factory and looked at what we’d done and the designs of the car.
“They even took the design data from Mercedes for last year’s car and checked it against ours. They did a thorough check. And they are completely happy that the car that we’ve got on track has been designed by us.“
“It may have some similarities to the Mercedes, but it’s just similar. It’s not the same. And so there is no protest there.
“They can shout and scream as much as they want, but I think what they’re actually shouting and screaming about is the fact that they’ve missed a trick. And that’s what they’re upset about.“
Green explained, there was needed optimisation of parts from Mercedes in the RP20 with becoming the first car to be designed under owner Lawrence Stroll, and the team having a higher budget available to them.
This means with the team adopting Mercedes style low-rake system, instead of the Red Bull Racing high-rake system which the team had developed for a number of years.
“There was no obligation to carry over a single thing in 2020, where there always had been huge pressure up until that point to carry over a significant percentage of the car – depending on the sort of financial situation we were in,
“There was always significant carry over, and this year was the first time that we had a clean sheet and we could optimise what we were buying from Mercedes.
“And it seemed just so logical – why fight against it? Why fight against this concept that they’ve been running and the concept that we’d adopted, why not just align the two and go from there?
“Which obviously means a completely new car with zero carry over.“
