60 GP RACING APRIL 2020
And, just to compound thesheer affrontery, it was a virtual replicaof last
year’s championship-winning Mercedes W10. Coming just months after
Racing Point shifted its aerodynamic research programme intoMercedes’
Brackley windtunnel, having used the Toyota facility in Cologne since 2015,
this was too much for many of the team’s rivals to take. It appeared to
prove the suspicions many had been nurturing since before Lawrence Stroll
acquired the team in 2018 – suspicions that hadpromp ted several of them
to try to block the saleoutr ight (see sidebar).
Racing Point has been forging closer ties withMercedes since itsprevious
incarnation as Force India, initially with a Mercedes engine andMcLaren
gearbox in 2009, then a completeMercedes powe rtrain from 2014.
Rivals began to feel the relationship was becoming too close even before the
Stroll-ledtakeover, when Mercedesplaced its junior driver Esteban Ocon
at Force India in 2017 in exchange for a discount on thepowe rtrain supply.
The team also began to race in the colours of Austrian water filtration
company BWT, in which Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff is a shareholder.
But using selected elements of another team’s parts bin isn’t illegal. Core
elements such asthe monocoque must beto a team’ s own design butbeyon d
that, as well asthe powertrain,it’s possible to buy many other components
including the suspension,brake drumsand brake ducts. It’s a model
Haas worksto (i ronically, Force India was one of severalteams to object to
the close ties between Haasand Ferrari),and thenumber of so-called
‘listed parts’ willexpand as F1
embraces a budget cap.
Critics of Racing Point’s
approach have labelled the
RP20 the ‘Tracing Point’ or the
‘pink Mercedes’ (not the first
time we’veseen one of those in
motorsport – BWT sponsored
a Mercedes DTM team for
several seasons). But the team is
completely upfront about its thought process, denies that it’s doing anything
wrong, and says thedescription of it as a ‘Mercedes B-team’ isunfair.
“We’re at 465 [staff] and we’re going to go to 500 in the next year and
a half,” saysteam principal Otmar Szafnauer. “We’re growing. That’s really
not like a Haas model.”
All teams employ spy photographers to keep tabs on their rivals. Indeed,
GP Racingsaw several individuals in team kit accompanyingprofessional
snappers trackside during the Barcelona tests. Anyone can produce a
facsimile of another carwithout access to its CAD data (which would be
illegal). But it’s quite another challenge to understand howeach element of
that car works together to achieve peak performance.
“Although everyone says, ‘Ah, you copied aMercedes,’ it’s our own
[car],” says Szafnauer. “It’s our own design. It’s our own development. It’s
our own wind tunnel model. It’s our own concept. Yeah, we looked to see
what’s fast and thought, ‘That’s fast, can wedo the same?’ It’s no different
than we did with Red Bull, when we ran a high-rake concept.”
It’s this fundamental difference in concept which has discouraged
others from copying Mercedes. Most other teams, including Racing
Point until this season, have been building on the high-rake philosophy
pioneered by Adrian Newey at McLaren, then pushed toextremes by him
at Red Bull during the blown-diffuser era atthe turn of the last decade.
The theory behind the nose-down, tail-up concept isby ra ising the back
:KeQ6erJio3ere]rolled out of the garage forthe first time – in
public at least – in his Racing Point RP20 on day one of the opening
pre-season Barcelonatest, manydenizens ofthe pitlane wentinto
convulsions. Here,at a time of convergence and consolidationwith
just months togo be fore a new set of ruleswas due to come into
force, was an aberration: not a nuanced evolution of the team’s
previous car but an entirelydifferent one fromthe ground up.
Spotthedifference:samecircuit,
butayearapart
60 GP RACING APRIL 2020
And, just to compound thesheer affrontery, it was a virtual replicaof last
year’s championship-winning Mercedes W10. Coming just months after
Racing Point shifted its aerodynamic research programme intoMercedes’
Brackley windtunnel, having used the Toyota facility in Cologne since 2015,
this was too much for many of the team’s rivals to take. It appeared to
prove the suspicions many had been nurturing since before Lawrence Stroll
acquired the team in 2018 – suspicions that hadpromp ted several of them
to try to block the saleoutr ight (see sidebar).
Racing Point has been forging closer ties withMercedes since itsprevious
incarnation as Force India, initially with a Mercedes engine andMcLaren
gearbox in 2009, then a completeMercedes powe rtrain from 2014.
Rivals began to feel the relationship was becoming too close even before the
Stroll-ledtakeover, when Mercedesplaced its junior driver Esteban Ocon
at Force India in 2017 in exchange for a discount on thepowe rtrain supply.
The team also began to race in the colours of Austrian water filtration
company BWT, in which Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff is a shareholder.
But using selected elements of another team’s parts bin isn’t illegal. Core
elements such asthe monocoque must beto a team’ s own design butbeyon d
that, as well asthe powertrain,it’s possible to buy many other components
including the suspension,brake drumsand brake ducts. It’s a model
Haas worksto (i ronically, Force India was one of severalteams to object to
the close ties between Haasand Ferrari),and thenumber of so-called
‘listed parts’ willexpand as F1
embraces a budget cap.
Critics of Racing Point’s
approach have labelled the
RP20 the ‘Tracing Point’ or the
‘pink Mercedes’ (not the first
time we’veseen one of those in
motorsport – BWT sponsored
a Mercedes DTM team for
several seasons). But the team is
completely upfront about its thought process, denies that it’s doing anything
wrong, and says thedescription of it as a ‘Mercedes B-team’ isunfair.
“We’re at 465 [staff] and we’re going to go to 500 in the next year and
a half,” saysteam principal Otmar Szafnauer. “We’re growing. That’s really
not like a Haas model.”
All teams employ spy photographers to keep tabs on their rivals. Indeed,
GP Racingsaw several individuals in team kit accompanyingprofessional
snappers trackside during the Barcelona tests. Anyone can produce a
facsimile of another carwithout access to its CAD data (which would be
illegal). But it’s quite another challenge to understand howeach element of
that car works together to achieve peak performance.
“Although everyone says, ‘Ah, you copied aMercedes,’ it’s our own
[car],” says Szafnauer. “It’s our own design. It’s our own development. It’s
our own wind tunnel model. It’s our own concept. Yeah, we looked to see
what’s fast and thought, ‘That’s fast, can wedo the same?’ It’s no different
than we did with Red Bull, when we ran a high-rake concept.”
It’s this fundamental difference in concept which has discouraged
others from copying Mercedes. Most other teams, including Racing
Point until this season, have been building on the high-rake philosophy
pioneered by Adrian Newey at McLaren, then pushed toextremes by him
at Red Bull during the blown-diffuser era atthe turn of the last decade.
The theory behind the nose-down, tail-up concept isby ra ising the back
WhenSergioPerezrolled out of the garage forthe first time – in
public at least – in his Racing Point RP20 on day one of the opening
pre-season Barcelonatest, manydenizens ofthe pitlane wentinto
convulsions. Here,at a time of convergence and consolidationwith
just months togo be fore a new set of ruleswas due to come into
force, was an aberration: not a nuanced evolution of the team’s
previous car but an entirelydifferent one fromthe ground up.
Spotthedifference:samecircuit,
butayearapart
