Racing Point tech chief Andrew Green says the team is taking the talks and complaints against them for their F1 2020 approach in a positive stride.
As has been well-documented, the Racing Point design for their RP20 made quite a splash when it broke covers during first 2020 F1 pre-season test at Barcelona and many teams expressed displeasure towards the Anglo-British outfit.
In fact, they have had an extraordinarily successful two weeks of testing with 779 laps in their kitty but more importantly they were seen in the top half of the standings – even though times did not matter but their pace could be ascertained.
Looking at RP20, some criticised Racing Point for dropping their old concepts in favor of ‘stolen ones’, like low rake, while their car used to have that of a higher angle, or a Mercedes-esque front wing while they used to have a unique design with a central probe.
However, Racing Point technical head Green has said that to think that the team would stick with evolution over revolution would be naive given the cash injection they recently came into possession of with Lawrence Stroll now on-board.
He is of the view that the talks and complaints about the approach taken by Racing Point is being taken in positive stride as the team is making headlines rather than sulking at the bottom of the grid with no presence in a tight F1 field.
“I think [complaints from other teams] boil down to the fact that some of the teams may not have done as good a job as they should have done, and I think we’re probably seeing that,” said Green to media including FormulaRapida.net.
“We’re a team that finished fourth two years on the trot [as Force India, in 2016 and 2017] with next to no money at all – we were absolutely hand to mouth – and we finished fourth in the championship, we beat the likes of McLaren, that was what we could do that with next to nothing.
“For people to think, to take a team like that and inject money and resources in it, and it wasn’t going to improve, was just naive. And I think they just haven’t stepped up to the plate. So I think a lot of their frustration is looking inwards:
“‘Crikey, we haven’t done a very good job’ – that’s what I’d be I’d be thinking if I was looking from the outside in. I’d be looking at my own department: ‘C’mon guys what on earth have you been playing at?’.
“It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a very long time and hadn’t had the budget to do. This is a 100% natural thing for us to do. It gives us encouragement that people are talking about us, complaining about us.
“That is a good indication to me that we’re doing something good. If we were at the bottom of the pack, nobody would be mentioning what we’ve done.” As Green told earlier, Racing Point did not take any help from Mercedes but designed their car through photos.
Here’s data from Test 2 and overall figures
Here’s episode-by-episode summary of Drive to Survive
Here’s seven F1 teams – including Racing Point – writing against FIA and Ferrari
Here’s Pierre Gasly on Racing Point-Mercedes vs Red Bull-AlphaTauri
Here’s Andrew Green speaking on how they executed RP20
The story was edited by Darshan Chokhani