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Ferrari, McLaren and Renault will appeal the decision of the FIA stewards regarding Racing Point’s brake ducts and push for a stronger penalty, as other Formula 1 teams weight up their options.
Racing Point was fined €400,000 and docked 15 constructors’ championship points after the stewards determined it had illegally used Mercedes data in the design of its rear brake ducts.
The team has protested its innocence throughout and is considering its own appeal to try to get the punishment overturned – but rivals are queuing up to appeal in the hope of making the sanction harsher.
Teams have until tomorrow morning to notify the FIA of their intent to appeal the decision, with Ferrari and McLaren having done so (and Renault confirming to F1’s official website that it would follow suit), then a further 96 hours to lodge it.
The three teams intend to appeal because they question the extent of the sanctions applied despite Renault winning its protest .
Renault lodged a trio of protests against the RP20’s brake ducts following the Styrian, Hungarian and British Grands Prix.
Despite finding the team guilty of improper practice in developing the rear brake ducts, the stewards only handed out a penalty for the first of those events.
They issued reprimands issued for the following two, while Racing Point will also be allowed to continue running the parts this season.
Racing Point has angered midfield rivals, which include Ferrari this season, for openly copying Mercedes’ 2019 car design.
While Racing Point has always insisted this has been done legally, and primarily through photographs, its rivals have doubts and believe this is effectively a Mercedes customer car through the back door.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff defended his customer team vigorously on Friday at Silverstone, and accused its rivals of starting a “little revolution”.
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto had hinted on Friday afternoon that Ferrari would appeal, saying the team would “be very careful in understanding and deciding what is the next step” after scrutinising the lengthy stewards’ verdict in full.
“One thing that is important is that it has been clarified that there has been a breach of regulation,” Binotto said. “I think that is the starting point.
“Obviously that is relative to the braking ducts but there is an entire concept behind it, which is about copying: are we allowed to copy or not, an entire concept?
“The two things need to be split. But on the braking duct there is a breach of regulation, that is a fact and it has been clarified.
“Is the penalty sufficient or not? Again, I think we need to go through carefully the 14 pages.”
Racing Point team boss Otmar Szafnauer (pictured above) said on Friday evening that he and his colleagues were still discussing whether to appeal.
He said the arguments against appealing were the cost attached and the potential for the points deduction to be meaningless this season anyway, but there is a strong desire to clear the team’s name.
“It could well be that the lawyers cost you more than the fine,” he said.
“That’s something you’ve got to decide.
“The 15 points that were docked, you’ve got to assess, is that going to matter at the end of the championship?
“In some years it does, in some it doesn’t. It’s hard to predict.
“The other thing is having done absolutely nothing wrong but being in breach of a sporting regulation process, that in itself is also not a positive thing.
“We should also just consider appealing just to clear our name. We did absolutely nothing wrong, we followed the regulations to a T.
“When you go to appeal you’ve got different types of judges who will hear the arguments.”
