Attempt to copy Mercedes W10 'risky' - Racing Point
- Published on 20 Feb 2020 10:46
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- By: Harry Mattocks
The technical director of Racing Point, Andrew Green has said that his team has taken a big risk in attempting to copy the design of the 2019 Mercedes W10.
The team, entering their first year as a well-funded outfit thanks to Lawrence Stroll, have drawn attention to themselves in Barcelona as many saw the similarities between the two teams.
Eyebrows were raised even further when Sergio Perez put his car only a tenth behind the Mercedes on the timesheets.
In previous years, although powered by Mercedes engines, Racing Point has stuck to their own design.
However, Green said that their was not much point in doing this in 2020 if they wanted to move up the grid.
"The inspiration is from the quickest car from last year," Green told Autosport. "That's where our inspiration came from. It's [a question of] why wouldn't we?
"We're in a position where we're using their [2019] gearbox, we've got the same power unit, and the gearbox is designed for suspension to go with a certain aerodynamic philosophy.
"We had a car that was running around seventh in the championship. And we've got one more year of these regulations, and the development that we were seeing with the high rake car to me just wasn't going to deliver, and it was worth taking a risk.
"And it is a big risk. We tore up what we did before, fresh piece of paper, where are we going to start?
"Well, you aren't going to start looking at the slowest car on the grid are you? You're going to start looking at the fastest car, and that's where we started.
"If it works, it works. If it doesn't, we've lost one year, but I don't think we would have lost anything relative to not doing it. The downside of not doing it was much greater."
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Replies (6)
Login to replyKean
Posts: 692
He's got a point. If the parts you buy are designed for a low rake car, then logically you should build a low rake car. The only car on the grid to take inspiration from is Mercedes. I have actually often wondered why all teams went in Red Bull's direction, regarding rake, when Mercedes was the fastest car. If this works for RP, the other teams are gonna look pretty stupid.
Manto02
Posts: 93
Funny, Force India often criticized Haas for copying ferrari and now they're doing the same (but this time it is a carbon copy)
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
If one is good at something, one does it better. :)
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
We took a lot of risk, because its risky to copy.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
I'm surprised more haven't gone this way. The closer the designs, the closer the racing.
Pistonhead
Posts: 556
I think RP should be applauded for their efforts to catch up. I don't see this is cheating, rather smart thinking - so if you are trying to match the best, you should at the very least look at what concept they are winning with - stupid not to in my opinion. Its how all this stuff works in unison that matters - copying from a picture is one thing, getting them to work in harmony is quite another - predict there will be other technology talking points before the season starts proper.