Italian Grand Prix – Racing Point have this afternoon announced that they have withdrawn their appeal over their punishment for copying Mercedes’ brake duct design.
In August it was ruled that the Racing Point team was to be fined €400,000 and have 15 Constructors’ Championship points deducted after the stewards decided that the team had used Mercedes’ 2019 designs for their car which was against the 2020 rules.
Following that decision Racing Point quickly indicated their displeasure and confusion over the ruling and the FIA’s initial view in March that everything was legal.
“We invited the FIA in March to come and view everything that we did,” Racing Point’s Team Principal, Otmar Szafnauer, said after the decision last month. “We had full disclosure.”Thereafter, they wrote to us and said we were completely compliant. So that’s a bit disappointing.”
The team now say that everything has been clarified to their satisfaction and, as such, their appeal is withdrawn. “Now that the ambiguity around the regulations has been settled, we have decided to withdraw our appeal in the wider interests of the sport.”
Racing Point were not the only team to lodge an appeal however these other teams, with Renault as the most vocal, were calling for a harsher punishment from the FIA.
These appeals were slowly withdrawn, with Renault being the last to do so just over a week ago.
The full statement from Racing Point reads: “We welcome the resolution the teams have agreed, and we’re pleased the FIA has provided much-needed clarification of the rules on listed and non-listed parts.
”The stewards and all parties involved in the appeals process recognise that there was a lack of clarity in the regulations and that we did not deliberately break them.
”Now that the ambiguity around the regulations has been settled, we have decided to withdraw our appeal in the wider interests of the sport.
”This issue has been a distraction for us and the other teams, but now we and everyone else can get back to focusing solely on what we’re all here to do: racing hard and providing excitement and entertainment for the millions of F1 fans around the world.”
