Racing Point have taken a jab at Haas, claiming their partnership with Mercedes would never “circumvent the regulations”.
As Formula 1 testing commenced in Spain this week, the Silverstone-based outfit attracted attention with a new car that appears almost identical to last year’s W10.
Commenting on the ‘Pink Mercedes’, Haas team boss Guenther Steiner suggested Racing Point had been hypocritical after criticising the American team for their close technical ties to Ferrari.
But technical director Andrew Green refutes the suggestion Racing Point is the new Haas because they would not consider going to the levels their midfield rivals did.
“The bit that really upsets, and still upsets, us about what goes on is the transfer of information that can and does happen between the big team and the small that’s circumventing the regulation,” he explained to RaceFans.
“We’ve had these conversations with the FIA many times.
“It was brought to a head in Abu Dhabi a couple of years ago with people rotating from one team to another, from the big team to the small team, back to the big team again.
“That’s the bit that upsets us, that’s the bit that we would never contemplate doing, never will.”
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As for Racing Point’s closer partnership with Mercedes, Green continued…
“It makes sense for us to be supplied with some hardware and it’s only a limited amount of hardware, this is not whole car hardware,” he stated.
“This is just some parts beyond what we’ve always had from Mercedes. It’s taking that and turning it to our advantage, doing what’s best for us.
“But what we don’t like is when people try to circumvent the regulations.
“We all know what was happening, whether it’s still happening or not, who knows because we don’t get a straight answer.”