RP20 hearing ‘the week before Silverstone’

Michelle Foster
RP20 hearing the 'the week before Silverstone'

RP20 hearing the 'the week before Silverstone'

The hearing into Racing Point’s brake ducts will “probably” take place in late July, that’s according to the FIA’s Nikolas Tombazis.

Racing Point is racing under a protest at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix after Renault questioned the legality of the RP20’s front and rear brake ducts.

According to Renault, it is not Racing Point’s design but rather Mercedes’.

The Enstone team lodged a protest at the Styrian Grand Prix with the FIA impounding the pink Mercedes’ brake ducts while also asking Mercedes for the same parts from their 2019 W10.

Racing Point is currently putting together its defence with Tombazis, the FIA’s head of single-seater technical matters, saying a hearing could be held in the days leading up to the British GP.

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Speaking to Sky F1, he said: “The resolution obviously I can’t comment yet because it’s for the stewards to determine that.

“We expect that will happen in about 10 days’ time [from July 18].

“The status is that Racing Point are preparing their defence for that, and we are also preparing the FIA technical position.

“Then there will be a hearing probably the week before Silverstone.

“The regulations say that some pieces are so-called listed, and therefore each team must make their own from scratch. And other components can be transferred between teams.

“The particular question about brake ducts is that the status of those components changed from 2019 to 2020.

“In 2019 teams could legitimately send their brake ducts to other teams, in 2020 that has changed.

“Renault are questioning the process that was followed by Racing Point in order to adopt these brake ducts.

“I don’t think it will be a debate trying to play the detective and find what happened, the debate will be more from a regulation point of view whether they followed the right process.”

Asked if the FIA will then look at other parts of the Racing Point F1 car with Renault claiming Racing Point had “received” drawings from Mercedes, Tombazis said he wasn’t under the impression that’s the case.

“The rest of the car is much more clear cut, it was listed in 2019 and remains so,” he said.

“If for example Racing Point had received information from Mercedes on say the front wing, that would be blatantly illegal, they would have been in serious trouble for that.

“I don’t think anyone is saying that has happened, so it’s a case specifically for these components.

“The rest of the car we get the impression that Racing Point have done a lot of photographing and they’ve done a lot of reverse engineering from that, but not actually received information from Mercedes.”

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