Racing Point: "We started with the design of Mercedes, but it was allowed in 2019"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
It was the conversation in the paddock at Silverstone on Friday. Racing Point that was punished by the FIA by copying the brakes of Mercedes. The penalty, 15 points deducted in the Championship and a fine of €400,000, did not fall well with many teams. Most teams feel the penalty was too light, but Racing Point think they are not doing anything illegal at all.
Otmar Szafnauer, team boss of Racing Point, explains why the team thinks so. "We have 886 unique drawings of our brakes and if you look at the regulations it says it should be your own design. We designed it all by ourselves," explains Szafnauer to Motorsport.com.
How did other teams do it?
"The stewards have acknowledged that, but have also indicated that we started our design by looking at the Mercedes brakes". Still, that's not a problem, according to Szafnauer. "You have to take into account that those parts were not listed parts in 2019".
If the brakes of Racing Point are declared really illegal, Szafnauer still has some questions about the other teams in the paddock. "If we start with a Mercedes design and then make our own design, how did Haas do with their brakes and where did AlphaTauri start designing the brakes", Szafnauer concludes.