F1 | Renault withdraws the appeal lodged against the stewards' decision on Racing Point
After some weeks of controversy, Renault has decided to withdraw the appeals that they have loged against the steward's decision regarding Racing Point's brake ducts.
It has been weeks full of news in the world of motorsports, especially in Formula 1. One of the most controversial topics to emerge has been the legality of the Racing Point RP20. The Canadian-British team has had one of the best starts to the season, if not the best. Their progress and improvements have been so great that some teams and drivers no longer considered them a mid-field team, as was the case with Carlos Sainz and his statements at the press conference for the Spanish Grand Prix. Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll have made the most of their RP20 and even Nico Hulkenberg, who has been a half year out of the category, managed to qualify in third place during qualifying for the 70th Anniversary GP. However, not everything is good for Racing Point since Renault has imposed numerous protests against its legality and during the Spanish Grand Prix, the FIA decided to penalize them with some reprimands, € 400,000 fine to the team and 15 points less in the constructors' championship due to the fact that its brake ducts were the same as those of last year's Mercedes W10, it should be mentioned that this part has to be manufactured from scratch and, consequently, cannot be bought or copied from any other team. After the penalty to Racing Point was announced by the FIA, many teams decided to appeal this, including Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, among others. This meant that those teams wanted a stronger penalty for Lawrence Stroll's team. With that said, today Renault announced that it is withdrawing its appeal against the decision by the FIA.
“Renault DP World F1 Team confirms that it has requested to withdraw the appeals lodged against the stewards’ decisions in relation to BWT Racing Point F1 Team’s brake ducts.
Beyond the decisions, the matters at issue were vital to the integrity of Formula One, both during the current season and in the future. However, intensive and constructive work between the FIA, Renault DP World F1 Team and all Formula One stakeholders has led to concrete progress in safeguarding the originality in the sport by the way of amendments to the Sporting and Technical Regulation planned for the 2021 racing season, confirming the requirements to qualify as a Constructor.
Reaching this strategic objective, in the contest of the new Concorde Agreement, was our priority. The controversy of the start of this season should be put behind us, as we need to focus on the remainder of an intense and unique Championship”
This was the official statement regarding the protests Renault has lodged against Racing Point. We must be aware that this is a political issue within sport. It is not usual for a team to present numerous protests against another participant due to some technical regulation problem. Let us remember that a technical foul in a car in favour of the team can mean in tenths or seconds won in the sessions of a Grand Prix, but if the FIA or any team denounces them, the team that inflicts the regulations may be disqualified from one or more Grand Prix, as was the case with Renault during the Japanese Grand Prix last year where they lost all the points they had achieved.