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The ruling moves McLaren and Ferrari above Racing Point and why they are hoping for a more severe penalty. Ferrari have no guarantee that Racing Point will not beat them in the standings this season and this would help them immensely if the penalty was increased.
Yesterday we saw Racing Point fined $400 000 plus a 15 point penalty to be deducted off their seasons tally. The reason being the brake ducts that are believed to be copied off Mercedes. The strange decision finds them guilty yet allows them to carry on for the remainder of the season. The part is not illegal, but the process in how they obtained the part they use today is now the issue.Other teams feel aggrieved and possibly feel they should have changed something on it and not have the identical part.
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Obviously Renault,McLaren plus Ferrari are not happy with this as the car in question is a definite threat to them this season. I can see why the confusion as this has been bought on by stupid decisions made by the FIA governing body.
In 2019 the brake ducts were not a listed part meaning you could buy them from your rivals. Mercedes are the top performing car so it was an obvious choice. Mercedes supplied the parts in question along with the design drawings which was then all legal. Aero dynamics accounts for around 20 percent of a teams overall budget so it was purely a business deal back in 2019. In 2020 this item became a listed part meaning that you have to make your own and can't buy this part from a rival.
Obviously having purchased the part they could then make their own after that just by copying it exactly. They purchased the knowledge in 2019 and you can't just discard that. Why change something if you can't better it? The FIA have screwed up with this as changing listed to unlisted and back again just wont work.
I can see both sides of the argument as the FIA originally said earlier in the year after visiting Racing Points factory they were within the rules. Penalising them now is harsh yet the three other teams feel it isn't severe enough as the team can still use that part. Possibly other teams are going to join the 3 in wanting for harsher penalties. The pecking order has changed and the teams are coming out fighting as they don't want to be leap frogged by Racing Point. There are Millions at stake here and it also effects earnings with sponsors.
This decision was what I can see is the FIA has tried to make everyone happy by penalising Racing Point yet at the same time allowing them to continue with these parts. If Racing Point were told to remove them they would only make the same item again. The only other answer would be to disqualify them entirely from this season.
The FIA makes some strange decisions. Last year Ferrari were given a technical directive after clearly breaking rules by running an illegal engine for part of the season. Renault were disqualified for changing their engine settings for one race in Japan last season. Now this ruling whatever way it goes after the appeal will not please everyone. I am sitting in Racing Point's camp right now as I believe they are in the right on this issue.
Toto Wolff mentioned that copying of cars is going to happen as technology is advancing at such a rate. Last year they had competitors filming their car in the pit lane with a 3 D camera. They can't stop this as this type of thing has been going on for decades.
The other item which was raised today was the Concorde agreement which deals with the commercial rights within the sport. All the teams are on the same page regarding prize money making for a fairer split of the rewards. Toto Wolff believes that this agreement is not ready to sign and compromises need to be made. The balancing act is the commercial and sporting rights for the next 5 years. This topic needs to be looked at in detail as this is very important going forward. I don't think it is fair and Toto has every right to make other teams squirm.