Horner not worried about 'pink Mercedes'

Feb.21 (GMM) Christian Horner is not among those who are concerned about the ‘pink Mercedes’ that will be on the 2020 grid.

Racing Point’s new car is visually almost identical to Mercedes’ 2019 contender, with an intensified collaboration over the winter involving the transfer of more component designs.

Racing Point technical boss Andy Green insists that everything was actually manufactured “from scratch” by the Silverstone based team.

“No technical information about the parts that we must create ourselves came from Mercedes,” he said.

“What you see on our car was developed on the basis of photographs of the Mercedes cars, and anyone can do that.”

A similar collaboration exists between Red Bull’s two teams, with Red Bull Racing boss Horner saying arrangements like those “make sense”.

“Otherwise, teams like Alpha Tauri, Racing Point, Haas or Alfa Romeo would have to find significantly more resources,” he said.

“Some go further than others with their cloning, but as long as it remains within the limits, I have no problem with it.”

Not surprisingly, Alpha Tauri boss Franz Tost agrees.

“We have stable regulations, so it’s normal for teams to copy other teams’ solutions. This is not new in Formula 1,” said the Austrian.

And Haas driver Romain Grosjean, whose car is based on many of Ferrari’s technical solutions, commented: “When you’re talking about the fastest car of last year, and you use the same power unit and need to cool it as well, then why not?

“I don’t judge if it is right or wrong, but I don’t think it is a bad idea,” said the Frenchman.

Finally, having already aired his concerns about the incoming 2021 rules, Racing Point’s Green concluded: “If you’re worried about the cars all looking the same, just wait for the new rules.”