Christian Horner: “Collaborations make sense”

One of the main points of discussion during the first week of the Barcelona winter testing, besides the Dual Axis Steering of Mercedes, will have been the striking resemblance between the Racing Point F1 RP 20 and the Mercedes W10 of 2019.

If Otmar Szafnauer's team sources the Power Unit from the German brand, the gearbox also comes from the 2019 version of the Mercedes, all of which necessarily leads to "constrained" design choices to adapt to the characteristics of the elements.

It should be noted, however, that the RP20 is not the only one to use this process of using external elements, since Alpha Tauri, little sister of Red Bull Racing, takes components from Milton Keynes into its AT01, when Haas is widely available from Ferrari for his VF20.

A context that does not displease Christian horner. " I think that collaborations make sense, otherwise how would teams like AlphaTauri and Racing Point, Haas, even Sauber, if they could not buy suspensions and gearboxes, comments the head of Red Bull Racing.

All the Research and Development they would have to conduct would be a large amount of resources. Sure, some teams seem to have gone further with their cloning than others, but as long as it's within the rules, I don't particularly have a problem with it. »

If the three leading teams, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, de facto maintain a certain lead in the peloton, this technical rapprochement offers certain advantages according to Horner.

“For Liberty, it creates a more competitive grid, and for the teams, it makes Formula 1 more affordable. So, of course, you don't want all 10 cars to look the same, but I think there are elements that are transferable, like suspension and gearboxes for example, that makes a lot of sense. »

All the information and the complete analysis of these tests, carried out by our special correspondents in Catalonia, can be found in AUTO issue 2256hebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version, and from next Wednesday on newsstands.

In the meantime, don't forget that our F1 2020 Guide is available in digital version and on newsstands.