“Car 100% Original” – Racing Point F1 Team Principal Gives a Fitting Reply to RP20 Critics

Racing Point F1, Haas, and AlphaTauri have more in common than can be seen from the outset: All three midfield groups get help from a top group. On account of Haas and Ferrari, that is no mystery since their group was established in 2016, as has Red Bull and AlphaTauri. In 2020 Racing Point F1 is presently drawing nearer to Mercedes. The pink team shields itself against allegations from the challenge.

There are various similarities between the Racing Point F1 RP20 and the Mercedes W10, the Silver Arrow of 2019. Rivals of the team consider the new vehicle a ‘Mercedes duplicate’, something group supervisor Otmar Szafnauer solidly denies.

1st pre-season testing has concluded. All the 3 days the Racing Point F1 was among the top four. Obviously, times throughout the winter test don’t tell the entire story, however, the Silverstone group is positive without a doubt.

It is not a one-to-one clone according to the team. Moreover, the parts are all designed by themselves and have not been purchased from Mercedes. Racing Point has ‘just looked closely at the W10’.

What the team principal of Racing Point F1 has to say about it?

“We only had photos for reference. The car is 100 percent developed by us. We have chosen the best car as a template. What is wrong with that? ”, Szafnauer wonders.

“It doesn’t bother me. We’ve been talking about doing this for a long time,” he said.

He explained, “We’ve had the Mercedes gearbox in the back of our car for many years, and because they run a different aero concept to us, because we ran a high rake with a gearbox that was designed for not a high rake, we were always compromised, especially at the rear end aerodynamically.”

“It’s nothing else than when we did it with Red Bull with the ‘high rake’ setup. We looked at what was happening and thought ‘we can do that too”

“That meant we had rear instability and because of where we are financially now it was the first opportunity we’ve had to actually switch concepts because it takes quite a bit of effort and resource to do that. This was our opportunity to do it – the sad thing is we will have a year of it, and then the regulations change,” he concluded.