McLaren against Racing Point's 'pink Mercedes' but won't raise protest

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has admitted he 'doesn't like' Racing Point's interpretation of the Formula One rules in the design of its Mercedes-mirroring RP20 but says it isn't grounds for a protest as he expects the team to prove biggest competition for midfield honours in 2020.

Racing Point has received criticism from some of its rivals for appearing to copy Mercedes’ 2019 challenger, with rumours of a protest from Renault ahead of the Australian Grand Prix in March, with the race ultimately being cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Seidl doesn't share the same criticism and says his team has ''absolutely no intention'' in protesting Racing Point's car design as he believes it hasn't done anything to contradict the regulations.

“There’s absolutely no intention to launch any protest because I think there are no grounds for that,” he said to select media, including Crash.net ahead of first practice in Austria. “Mercedes and Racing Point have chosen to go down this route which, to be honest, I think there’s also room within the regulations to do what they did.

“Do I like it? Of course, I don't like it but at the same time, if it’s possible within the regulations to do something like that, to have this kind of cooperation in terms of sharing wind tunnel technology and so on, there’s no reason to complain.

“I simply think it’s important for F1 to put out further clarifications towards the future to make sure there are certain limitations of what we can do.’’

Its design decision appears to be vindicated with many, including Seidl, tipping the Silverstone-based outfit to be F1's leading team behind the big three - Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari.

“Racing Point and their cooperation with Mercedes look very, very strong,” Seidl added “In Barcelona, they sounded quite confident as well so I think that will be the car to beat in the midfield this year. At the same time, we know Renault and some other teams as well did a great job over the winter and we are expecting a very tight battle.’