Stewards demand Racing Point & Mercedes brake parts over illegal copying allegations

It followed a strong performance by both Racing Point cars in Sunday’s race, climbing from the second-half of the grid to finish sixth and seventh — with Sergio Perez challenging for fourth.

“The FIA technical department representative was directed to seal and impound the relevant parts of cars 11 and 18 in preparation for conducting a detailed analysis of those pieces,” the stewards’ statement read.

“The representative is further directed to provide a detailed report to the stewards with the findings and to include an assessment that matches those findings against the alleged infringements outlined in the protest.

“Furthermore, the stewards ordered the Mercedes F1 team to provide the front and rear brake air ducts of the Mercedes-AMG W10 used by the team in the 2019 season to the FIA technical department for examination.”

Since Racing Point’s RP20 was unveiled in February, ahead of pre-season testing it has been dubbed the ‘Pink Mercedes’ for its similarities to last-season’s championship-winning car.

But the team has been adamant that it has simply made (and legally) imitated the Mercedes concept based on video footage and images, without access to any confidential designs.

In February, Andy Green, the team’s technical director, said that it was logical to follow that direction because the parts supplied by Mercedes were designed for such a car.

“It’s difficult to try and shoehorn and develop around a different philosophy from the underlying architecture that you have,” he said.

No date has yet been given for the assessment and reports into the brake ducts.