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Not illegal but normally you copy the best bits off all the other cars. These days there are no other cars worth copying so this will happen.This doesn't help when they have a Mercedes engine completing the package.
After listening to both sides of the story regarding Racing Pint and the Brake Ducts I feel the fIA has backed themselves into a corner. By penalising something that was legitimate 1 year ago and now penalising them for still using them makes no sense.
Racing Point purchased the parts from Mercedes in a business deal. Toto Wolff the head of Mercedes AMG Formula One is a partner in other areas and is a hare holder in Aston Martin alongside Lawrence Stroll who owns Racing Point. Lawrence Stroll is also a sponsor in Mercedes as he owns the brand Tommy Hilfiger so there are many cases where they overlap each other as business partners.
Lawrence is rather pissed off at this current time and he has every right to feel aggrieved. He understands why the 4 other teams are appealing the case as there is literally no clarity. Racing Point have been fined and deducted points yet still allowed to use the parts in question for the remainder of the season.
When they purchased the brake ducts they made over 900 drawings bringing the technology into their car. They could have just taken photographs like other teams do and just reverse engineer the part ending up with a similar result. You can't tell Racing Point that they cannot use those parts now as they bought the parts and knowledge legally when it was a listed part in 2019. It would just be easier for the FIA to change the ruling back for this particular part as they will lose in court which seems to be where this is heading.
What is interesting is to take some of the points out of the ruling which the stewards confirmed in a statement earlier.
.The parts transfer between Mercedes and Racing Point on January 6th 2020 does not constitute a breach of the regulations worthy of censure as the parts in question were both not used and did not expand the information that had previously passed from Mercedes to Racing Point quite legitimately under the regulations in 2019. The recent change of status of the Brake Ducts as Listed Parts further argues that censure or penalisation is not appropriate on this point. These are the words of the stewards.
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Add the 15 points deducted on Racing point and suddenly they are in third spot on the constructors table ahead of 3 of the ones appealing the decision as too lenient. Have no idea why Williams is ruling with the other 3 as they have 0 points.
What is obvious is the teams that are challenging this are teams who have something to gain. Ferrari cheated last year with their engine and the whole episode was blatantly covered up by the FIA. I just wish the other teams had banded together like they are doing now and demanded the truth. Ferrari need to tread carefully as this could blow up in their faces if they push too hard.
Lawrence Stroll has money and his name means everything to him as anything slightly shady is not a good image for any business he is involved in. I believe he will go hard to clear his name and spare no expense as I believe he should. The team has done absolutely nothing wrong yet they have been penalised for something obscure. The court it seems is the only place that can sort this mess out as everyone seems to be unhappy with the penalties.
Lawrence thinks that the others trying to push for harsher penalties is a sign of poor sportsmanship on their part. All everyone wants is fairness and if everyone had done their jobs right there would be no case here. I am hoping everyone sees the light and drops this by Wednesday which is the deadline for the appeal.
Ross Brawn who is the Technical Director of Formula One has stated that copying is part and parcel of Formula One. He said it was common practice for photographers to work with a shopping list of what needs to be photographed given to them by the teams Technical Directors. He out of anyone should know this as he was Technical Director for a number of teams during his career. Not one team is innocent and they are all guilty if they were all honest. Racing Point may just be better at it and have got this down to a fine art. Why would you copy the Ferrari when it is such a lemon ,only Mercedes and Red Bull have something that can be of use so more and more cars will resemble Mercedes after a few years.