Ross Brawn justifies Racing Point's copying work

Undoubtedly, the controversy surrounding the legality of the Racing Point RP20 constitutes the main subject in the paddock Formula 1 at the start of summer. Two complaints filed by Renault highlighted the work carried out by the pink stable, accused of having copied the solutions seen on the Mercedes W10 from 2019.

This sensitive point is of great interest to Ross Brawn. The Motor Sports Director of Liberty Media (owner of the sport), former Technical Director for teams such as Benetton, Ferrari, Brawn GP or Mercedes, knows a lot about non-sporting themes.

According to the Briton, “Recopying is the norm in F1. Each team normally has photographers taking thousands of photos of each car in the pit lane, just to analyze the cars and with the idea of ​​copying the best finds. We used to give our photographers a “shopping list”, he recalls.

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From there to Ross Brawn justifying Racing Point's position, there remains a step that the Englishman seems to be taking. “Racing Point simply took this imitation work to another level, more in-depth. There isn't a single team in the paddock that hasn't copied something. If I asked all the technical managers to raise their hands if they hadn't imitated anything, you wouldn't see any hands. I have certainly duplicated solutions myself. »

This speech should hardly satisfy the complainants Renault. “Last year, Racing Point had access and could use the Mercedes brake ducts as they did not fall under the items listed by the FIA. This year, scoops are on this list, so you need to create your own piece.

However, Racing Point could not forget their knowledge acquired using the scoops made in Mercedes 2019. It is illogical to believe that those responsible for Racing Point could erase their memory."

Ross Brawn leaves it to the FIA ​​to untangle this bag of knots. “This is a complicated problem that needs to be resolved by the FIA ​​experts. » But at least we know his opinion. 

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