The new Racing Point RP20 has appeared for the first time in pre-season testing at Circuit de Catalunya.
The team’s technical director Andrew Green said the car “is entirely new, meaning that there’s very little carryover from our 2019 car.“For 2020, we designed the car from scratch, starting from almost a blank sheet of paper – which is very exciting, because the team hasn’t been in a position to do this in a very long time.
“We’ve applied everything that we’ve learnt over the past seasons, combined this with what we’ve seen adopted by some of our competitors, and we’ve given it our best shot at optimising the final season of these present regulations.”
Green said the team aimed to address its two key weaknesses with its new 2020 design. “Our car has had an Achilles heel as far as balance is concerned and we have also struggled on high-downforce circuits,” he said.
[smr2020test]”For 2020, I believe we have addressed these two factors. As such, the drivers should notice a significant difference in terms of on-track performance.”
Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll gave positive initial feedback on the car’s performance in the simulator, he added.
“Both Checo and Lance have already noticed a change in the simulator, so we’re hopeful that this performance will carry over to the track – especially with a strong combination in our driver line-up.”
Perez was the first to drive the team’s car after it was revealed on Wednesday.
Pictures: 2020 Racing Point F1 car
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2020 F1 season
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Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
19th February 2020, 8:23
Why do I get a feeling that they bought it straght from Mercedes.
Ivan (@wpinrui)
19th February 2020, 8:25
I get the same feeling; the nose, air intake and front wing concept all look very similar
Ross
19th February 2020, 8:36
Even the sidepods look like last years Merc… and they were seemingly Merc’s biggest weakness.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
19th February 2020, 8:44
@pironitheprovocateur
No wonder Stroll thinks podiums will be possible with that car xD
DAllein (@)
19th February 2020, 8:48
LOL, I though I was alone thinking it looked like pink Mercedes)
OOliver
19th February 2020, 9:23
That’s it. Was looking at the car and having an odd deja vu moment.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
19th February 2020, 8:50
Well, this is really strange. I believed the former Force India had enough clever people to build their own competitive car, they proved they were more than capable from 2014 to 2018. Instead we’re seeing the exact copy of last year’s Mercedes and Andy Green is trying to persuade us this is their own approach – the team which is still relatively tight on budget completely overhauls their design for the last season of the current rules and decides to do so with the aggresive and really intricate design which took Mercedes several years to accomplish. That sounds utterly credible.
Only Facts!
19th February 2020, 12:31
From a business point of view, it makes a lot of sense.
It’s the last year of this design, so RP cannot use it to evolve their car and become a threat in 2021.
Buying the complete blueprint saves RP a lot of man hours so they can concentrate on 2021 chassis.
RP new facilities were still being finished last year.
Mercedes has no use for the old chassis anyway, so why not sell the blueprint to your sponsor Tommy Hilfiger.
From the sport point of view, I can see lots of arguments against it.
But we would have to criticize Alpha, Alfa and Haas too.
MattDS (@mattds)
20th February 2020, 11:50
Because it’s not allowed by the regulations. Guarantee you that this is not what has happened. Mercedes risk to lose way more than they gain in doing this, it’s a clear contravention to the rules.
People are going crazy about it but it’s basically just RP buying what is allowed from Mercedes and then design everything by what they could see on the Mercedes. Not actual blueprints.
DAllein (@)
19th February 2020, 8:57
Really strange…
When they announced the car will look “distinctively different”, they forgot to say it will look “distinctively similar to Mercedes… which is distinctively different to all other cars”.
Not sure how this happened… did they just copy it? Or was there some kind of collaboration?
Mysterious.
Todfod (@todfod)
19th February 2020, 9:21
Seems like something Haas would pull off. Surprised Racing Point went this route.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
19th February 2020, 9:44
@todfod
Even Haas didn’t do something like this. Reminds me more of the first Toro Rosso, which was the 2005 Red Bull with some modifications to adjust to the 2006 regs.
Todfod (@todfod)
19th February 2020, 10:18
@srga91
Honestly, I’ve never seen any two car models bearing the same amount of resemblance as Ferrari’s 2017 car and Haas’ 2018 car. It almost felt like Haas just took a 3D printing blueprint of the Ferrari challenger and created their challenger.
Lums (@lums)
19th February 2020, 9:22
For Racing Point, I’m slightly disappointed with this approach.
But I wished Williams had gone thru this route since they don’t have the funds.
OOliver
19th February 2020, 9:40
Its one thing to climb all the steps up a mountain, its another thing to have an aircraft drop you there.
The end result is you get there. Those with a little conscience will feel guilty about taking the easy way. Those without, will get back home early and go do other things.
Hakk The Rack
19th February 2020, 9:39
Stroll Senior wanted to push Williams back then with same direction, I mean a model a la Ferrari / Haas, but Paddy Lowe and Claire said NO. Racing Point seems to adapt this style, what means we’ve got 2019 Mercedes painted pink and high hopes for 2020.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
19th February 2020, 10:01
Judging by the times in testing so far, this concept works well…that’s farcical and FIA is ridiculous for allowing this.
gardenfella (@gardenfella72)
19th February 2020, 10:39
I think the precedent was set with the Haas being a Ferrari clone so there’s not much they can do
anon
19th February 2020, 18:47
@pironitheprovocateur as others have pointed out, given that Haas’s entire business model has relied on partnerships with Ferrari, whilst Red Bull have explicitly stated that they were switching Toro Rosso to maximising parts sharing with Red Bull (hence Jody Eggington describing their 2020 car as having the back end of the 2019 RB15 on it), precedents have been set years in advance.
Kurik
19th February 2020, 10:06
I honestly dont care if they are taking cues from merc. If they are competitive and fighting for 3rd or 4th in constructors then happy days as more the merrier. Remember that they still need to develop the car over the season.
David
19th February 2020, 10:17
Reminds me of when Sauber cloned the Ferrari F2003GA in the 00’s
Kieran (@grasbysaurus)
19th February 2020, 10:58
Andy Green
What Mr Green left out from the statement is that it was a sheet of tracing paper.
wobs
19th February 2020, 11:05
I don’t like that teams can do this, the only midfield teams that genuinely build their own cars now are Reno and Williams. Racing Point=Old Merc, Haas=Old Ferrari, Alpha Tauri=Old Red Bull and Alfa Romeo share Ferrari employees!
wobs
19th February 2020, 11:07
Mclaren also build their own car to be fair but here’s hoping they are a front runner this year!
Harry (@harrydymond)
19th February 2020, 11:11
Clearly what we need here is for @keithcollantine to do one of his excellent slide-over car comparison thingies for 2019 Merc vs 2020 Racing Point.
Racecar is racecar backwards
19th February 2020, 15:08
Might be a shrewd move. Just run an old merc for a year and concentrate on designing a brand new Aston Martin for 2021.
Gavin Campbell
19th February 2020, 16:37
Since the RP will share certain internals with the Merc (Engine, Gear Box and Rear Suspension) I’m sure the aero team loaded up a design based on the 2019 Merc. Then if that was a long way ahead of their 2020 plans you’d be stupid to go with some unique that’s worse.
They didn’t buy anything else – all the teams have huge collections of photos/videos and data on all the cars in the pit lane. They may also have looked at Red Bull/Ferrari/McLaren solutions. With the top teams so far ahead since the new aero rules came in I’m surprised it doesn’t happen a lot more
SaturnVF1 (@saturnvf1)
20th February 2020, 4:11
Man, how many ways can F1 teams make their nose tips look like wangs? I hope they change the tip to not be pink. Or red.