Words by Dionysis Nanos
It’s been a long time coming and really so far I just chose to not talk about it. I just thought that it would be something that people and teams noticed at first and then it would be forgotten, since there are more pressing issues right now with racing and the world in general. But no. People are still talking about the “pink Mercedes” and really I’m bored of it, and here’s why.
So for those that haven’t bothered watching F1 after the end of the 2019 season here’s what’s been happening. The former Force India, now Racing Point and future Aston Martin unveiled a car for 2020 that looks awfully similar to the championship winning Mercedes of 2019, and by awfully similar I mean an exact copy. Seriously, they look the same and it’s not even a case of the writer being dramatic (for once anyway). More specifically the nose cone is the first giveaway that something is a bit off, and after the car set a time that was ridiculously close to Hamilton’s 2020 Mercedes (less that a tenth close actually) all the teams justifiably said that if this is acceptable by the FIA then we might as well make Lawrence Stroll president for life. Well… they didn’t actually say that but most teams said that such copying doesn’t have a place in F1 with Racing Point immediately rushing out and saying “Oh no, our car was just… influenced… by last year’s Mercedes” while clearly what we’re seeing as a new F1 machine is Mercedes’s homework from last year with a splash of pink. And of course everyone and their followers condemned Racing Point and went after them with the internet’s equivalent of a torch and a pitchfork and started talking about how actions like that undermine the rules and the sport in general. My question to all of them is, would you have done something different if you were Lawrence Stroll?
The 2019 Racing Point. Not just a different design, but more a different car
So let’s get into Papa Stroll’s shoes here. 2019 is over with okay-ish results, keeping in mind that the team that used to be Force India went into receivership a year ago. You know that for 2021 you have brand new regulations and not only that, but 2020 is Racing Point’s last year before coming a proper works Aston Martin team, after you’ve personally injected the car maker with 650 million dollars. So standing between you and 2021 is of course the 2020 season, a season that is just there as a stop gap. You also know that any upgrades or advances made with the current regulations for this season will be completely useless from 2021 onwards, so what do you do? Of course, being a business man you want to make the best choice for everyone, which involves both you and of course your team. Well… that’s what Lawrence Stroll did.
See, we already know of the ties between Racing Point and Mercedes. Granted, Williams is also a Mercedes customer but they’re not nearly as close with Stuttgart as the pink team is, which means that there was already a lot of talking with Mercedes before the 2020 shenanigans. What Racing Point did is that they acknowledged that 2020 is basically a dead year for them, taking advantage of the current laws that don’t prohibit such “shared designs” and using an already established design that can and will give them good results. That way Racing Point gets a decent last year and they didn’t even have to spend all the money required for developing an entirely new chassis. As far as I can see it it’s an act of genius on the part of Lawrence Stroll. So as a plan then, it’s good. As an execution though… that’s where the questions are.
The other Mercedes customer, Williams and the FW43 during winter testing in Barcelona.
According to Racing Point, the RP20 was designed based on pictures and material that they collected and not from off the record conversations with Mercedes. While using pictures isn’t illegal, if it is proven that Mercedes did actually sell their design to Racing Point then it’s not the pink Mercedes we should worry about but rather the real silver one, since if they so blatantly sell off for the sake profit who knows what else is going on. Even if Racing Point went to Mercedes and knocked on the door with a suitcase full of cash, Mercedes is still at fault here, that’s of course if anything is ever proven, which I highly doubt will happen.
So, to wrap this up. There is no point going after the RP20 and Lawrence Stroll as what has happened here is perfectly legal and a smart business move, but not a good sports move, especially when teams like McLaren and Williams are taking the long road to success (in the case of Williams the very long road..). With Covid-19 pushing back the new regulations to 2022 and with the current 2020 cars eligible to race for 2021, it’s still anyone’s guess how the RP20 will fair, but so far it looks like the best of the rest, or to put it more correctly, it’s last year’s best of the rest…