McLaren has confirmed they will not be lodging any protest against Racing Point over their 2020 car.
Ever since the RP20 left the garage in Barcelona, it has been dubbed as a ‘Pink Mercedes’ due to its clear similarity with last year’s championship-winning W10.
Racing Point has long insisted the resemblance only comes from having taken inspiration from Mercedes, rather than directly copying their 2019 design.
That still hasn’t stopped them from being the target of unhappiness from independent teams like Renault and McLaren, with whom they’re expected to battle in this year’s midfield.
But whereas the French manufacturer hasn’t ruled out a protest, if only for clarification purposes, McLaren now has.
“I can only speak for ourselves,” said team boss Andreas Seidl to The Race. “On our side, there is absolutely no intention to launch any protest because I think also there’s no grounds for that.
“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.
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“Do I like it? Of course I don’t like it,” he added. “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 windtunnel technology and so on, there’s no reason to complain.
“I simply think it’s important for Formula 1 to put out further clarifications towards the future to make sure that there’s a certain limitation of what it can do.”
The McLaren boss also made it clear that while they might not like their methods, the Woking-based outfit is still a worthy competitor.
“We also have a lot of respect for what Racing Point is doing. We have seen in the past that they are a great team, which was always quite successful also with restricted resources,” Seidl continued.
“And in the end, I’d prefer to focus on ourselves. We know exactly what we have to do on our side on McLaren’s side in order to make the next steps.
“And that’s where I use my energy on, to help with the team.”
Already in Practice 1 in Austria, the potential of Racing Point was clear as Sergio Perez was fourth fastest just behind the McLaren of Carlos Sainz.
And speaking on Thursday, the Mexican had some lofty ambitions.
“We are about to find out how competitive it is. It felt good in Barcelona, it had good potential,” Perez said.
“I certainly feel extremely positive, extremely motivated to start the season on a high and hope for the best.
“I hope we can be fighting the top three, challenging the top three teams. That would be something good for us.”