“Racing Point Cloning Fine as Long as Within F1 Rules”: Red Bull

The Racing Point x Mercedes: Clone Wars Saga has evidently opened a new can of worms. Most of the teams have been divided on the matter, though Red Bull boss Christian Horner seems to support it. The British team principal was all for the idea of teams cooperating with each other.

Red Bull practically introduced the idea of partnerships in F1 owing to their sister team Toro Rosso, now named AlphaTauri. Since then, other top teams have embraced the notion, namely Ferrari with Alfa Romeo, and Mercedes with Racing Point.

It must be pointed out that in the case of Mercedes and Racing Point, there is a conflict of interest. Surprisingly, Horner confessed that such a practice is good for the sport.

He admitted that collaborations make sense otherwise some teams will not be in a position to buy upgrades for their cars. Already, they have a limited budget, but without the tie-ups their lives will be a lot harder.

What else did the Red Bull team boss say?

Horner continued, “Of course, some teams look like they’ve gone further in their cloning than others, but so long as it complies with the rules I don’t particularly have a problem with it.”

According to the Red Bull team principal, providing smaller teams with more resources will allow them to be more competitive. Normally, their limited budget means that better resources are hard to come by.

In the end, the move will only bode well for Liberty Media as the scope for competition increases. On the other hand, it makes it more affordable for the F1 teams.

He insisted that the idea was not to have 10 identical cars, but certain transferable elements like suspension and gearboxes. Here, the Toro Rosso example works the best, as they acted as a ‘B Team’ for Red Bull. However, it is more than likely that the dynamic will change in 2020 especially with the rebranding.