Been doing some reading across some other platforms and there’s an increasing confidence in Renaults protest.
Carlos Sainz in March:
Carlos Sainz questioned his engineers about copying the W11
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I asked my engineers ‘Why don’t we copy Mercedes too?’ and they told me it’s impossible. I believe them and I’m not going to say anymore,” he said.
Marcin Budkowski in March:
Asked by Autosport if his team was comfortable with Racing Point's approach, Renault's executive director Marcin Budkowski said: "I think it's a slightly concerning evolution for the sport.
"
It's a trend that started a few seasons ago and it is a new chapter in that trend.
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It will be for the FIA to decide whether it's fully compliant or not. So at this stage, I don't think I have any more to say."
Marcin Budkowski today:
To be honest, we were planning to do it in Melbourne, and didn't really have the opportunity to do it in Melbourne," Renault executive director Marcin Budkowski told Motorsport.com.
"And the reasons why we didn't do it last week were more related to the fact took a lot of a lot of good work from the FIA and F1 to reconvene everybody at a race. And I think we wanted to respect this, and we applaud the work that they've done.
"And I think we know a lot of teams have contributed to it. And we just thought it wasn't it wasn't the right thing to do.
"But we did it at the second race because again, there was the opportunity to do it. That's really the reason for waiting, but it's something we spotted in Barcelona in the testing."
In effect, for the second race Renault decided that the gloves were off. It just happened that on this occasion one of its drivers – Daniel Ricciardo – finished behind both pink cars.
Budkowski won't comment, but other teams in the pitlane have made their displeasure all too clear, and sources suggest that privately they have backed the Renault protest and shared their suspicions, even if they have not attached their names to the FIA document in public. After all, only one team has to actually take action to set things in motion.
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Daniel Ricciardo, Renault F1 Team R.S.20, leads Lance Stroll, Racing Point RP20
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
So what is the protest about, and why does it focus on brake ducts?
The case relates to the often controversial issue of listed parts, and what teams can and cannot buy or borrow from their rivals.
Chassis and aerodynamic surfaces have always been regarded as the key elements for which teams are expected to create their own intellectual property, whereas items like gearboxes and suspension are free to be traded. All the details are enshrined in Appendix 6 of the FIA Sporting Regulations.
Brake ducts, which clearly have a key aerodynamic influence, became a listed part for the 2020 season.
"Basically we contend that the brake ducts front and rear that are used on the Racing Point are effectively a Mercedes design, and so have been designed by another competitor," says Budkowski.
"Which is in breach of the sporting regulations, more precisely Appendix 6, and therefore we protested the cars because of that.
"First of all brake ducts are a listed part, because they are a performance differentiator as they're an aerodynamically sensitive component. And they are also pretty crucial in controlling tyre temperatures, which we know is a fairly major performance differentiator in F1.
"And they are regulated by Appendix 6, so we believe that these geometries in use in the Racing Point are effectively the exact design of Mercedes from last year, potentially with some minor modifications to adapt them to the Racing Point, or some minor evolutions, but nevertheless it's not a Racing Point design.
"So it's not their intellectual property. And that's explicitly banned in the regulations."
The protest was accepted by the FIA stewards at the Red Bull Ring, and will be heard at some future date, once the evidence has been gathered.
Budkowski stresses that it's not the job of Renault to demonstrated that its rival has broken the rules.
"It's not us that have to prove it, it's Racing Point. In the F1 regulations, it's the duty of the competitor to prove that your car is legal at all times. So it will be it will be Racing Point's duty to prove the legality of their car."
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