That and Haas is a much less experienced team than RP.
That and Haas is a much less experienced team than RP.
It's clear all the Ferrari teams are suffering, Haas and Alfa Romeos... you can put Lewis Hamilton in those cars and won't do any good.
Everyone seems to have improved a bit, but Ferrari has definitely gone the wrong direction.
Racing Line's explanation on the brake duct protest is super interesting.
Basically, Renault proposed last year that brake assemblies and air ducts be appended to technical regulations as "listed parts" -components that the operating team must own the Intellectual Property rights to-, and so the FIA did. Starting Jan. 1, 2020 appendix 6 came into effect.
The major supplier of braking elements to F1, Brembo, says that it supplies all teams with custom parts; however different, it depends on each team's needs, and so there is a lot of information that Brembo possesses/has access to in order to do their job, but tellingly, not only they do their job well, they also keep their clients' secrets well under NDAs and they honor those contracts. Because the nature of hi-performance brake work is so specialized, it is believed that most F1 teams share some of the suppliers and subcontractors, under equally secretive NDAs, so much so that some elements of Racing Point's braking elements being investigated do not bear the engineering house branding. RP's claim is that because of all the "inbreeding" in F1, they do not wish other teams to know who their babies' daddies are.
That seems normal, right?
Well, according to public information and gossip paddock, Lawrence Stroll and Toto Wolff are good friends, and they, along with Mercedes, are shareholders in Aston Martin Lagonda Global. Racing Point and Mercedes AMG apparently also go to the same brake saloon to keep their laptimes well-trimmed.
Renault is basically saying: a) they share a bunch of parts + b) their brakes are made by the same shops + c) they have common interests + d) RP's brake ducts are not shop-marked (in an attempt to hide that they're made by the same shop that makes Mercedes' to exactly the same specs) + e) RP's submitted plan drawings bear no author's name = They're using the same brake ducts that Mercedes used last year.
And even if that is all true, Racing Point's last defense could be: "So what?, we bought the IP before 01/01/2020".
acket.
"b) they are made by the same shops": oh, really, incredible, right? In the rarified market of F1 part manufacturers... who would have thought that!?!! The scandal!
I hope RP wins this one.
So we will get to understand how in 2020 it is ludicrous to not have more standardized parts of the cars.
The german magazine Bild has rumours of talks about Vettel in Racing Point from the 2021 season, replacing Sergio Perez, whom has a release clause in his contract that must be activated before the 31st of July.
Sad. I was hoping to see them together.
And Vettel having one last good year against Fred.
acket.
Interesting that the FIA would make that amendment for the following season, considering how early next year's cars are started. When was it actually passed, before going into effect on 1/1/2020?