The McLaren team sees no reason to protest against the Racing Point team, which has developed a ‘carbon copy’ of the 2019 Mercedes.

During the 2020 F1 winter tests, the Racing Point RP20 was the subject of much discussion because of its similarity to the 2019 Mercedes W10.

The Racing Point team has indeed somewhat copied the concept of a world championship winning car from last year, which made some of its rivals react already during the winter tests.

While some of the teams on the grid may be considering an official protest, the McLaren team considers the Racing Point RP20 to be perfectly legal and therefore has no plans to protest.

“McLaren is an independent racing car manufacturer and we want to remain so. We are pursuing ambitious goals and we want to achieve them with hard work. ” says Andreas Seidl, the McLaren principal team manager.

Andreas Seidl

“I am certain that everything about this car [the Racing Point RP20] is legal. So I see no reason to protest.

“I don’t have time to waste my energy on this, for me other issues are much more important like the next budget cap.”

However, it should be remembered that the FIA visited Racing Point before the start of the season to check in detail whether the RP20 was indeed a car developed by the team over the winter and not a straightforward copy of the Mercedes. After this visit, no irregularities were found by the FIA.

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