I doubt they can hold onto 2nd against Red Bull, but 3rd looks very possible for Mclaren, Ferrari look like they'll be lucky to get 5th against Renault and Pinkcedes. #Edit, 2 races in and Mercedes have double the points of 2nd, at a track the struggle at. See you in 2021...
A) Those Ferraris look about ready to go in a Findus lasagne B.i) Leclerc's move on Vettel which C4 dismissed as a 'racing incident' when Vettel was lambasted for doing the same thing on Sainz last week? AMENDMENT, they've corrected their stance in post race analysis, but still. B.ii) Coultard kept saying that it was the yellow kerb that lifted/launched Leclerc's car into the back of Vettel, even though it was obviously the rear wheels colliding and leclrec's rolling up and over vettel's. Even on the super slow Mo later he was still saying it. Yeh because a front tyre hitting a bump will cause the rear to jump up C) Way to go Lando! D) Poor old Carlos E) Ben Edwards looks weird F) I don't know what I think about tracing point. Haas buy all the parts they can from Ferrari, teams put up those secrecy screens up to stop other teams peeking and photographers taking snaps, almost everyone is copying Merc nose vanes, they've just taken it a staircase further. But an entire car and concept is a bit much I feel. Will be interesting to see how the FIA ensure they get the correct Merc 2019 brake ducts, can't imagine they'd have had a single version all season.
IIRC Haas' brake problems is, in part, because due to a tweak to the rules they had to design their own brake ducts rather than just buying them from Ferrari like they have in previous years.
E) Ben Edwards has always looked weird. F) I think RP should be applauded, not punished. STR/AT are funded by Red Bull, who make the barest effort to hide all the data sharing going on between the two teams. Sauber Romeo has almost the same deal, Haas buys parts kits in from Ferrari. RP's approach is the only way they could have moved forward on their budget. There's a sort of precedent for this too, in 1995 Ligier basically copied the 94 Benetton, they got away with it as the FIA deemed there to be enough differences when inspecting the details. They'll be very unlucky to get in trouble over this.
He very much has a face for radio/commentary As for 'tracing point' i can't remember it was scarbs or one of the other people who often pops up in regard to anaylsing f1 cars relaying a story of a team managing to more or less reverse engineer a competitor's car based on a couple photos and some trackside sketches. I don't doubt RP could more or less carbon copy the 2019 based on a combo of public domain info/images, their own knowledge of f1 cars and enough time/effort/luck. It's why they hide the cars behind screens and not let Kravitz et al get too nosey bc they know if the plebs watching at home can see what's going on with the finer details of the car, their competitors can too.
The FIA can't suddenly rule the ForceStroll illegal without making themselves look like Cabinet Ministers in the process as they previously signed off on it. So I'd hazard a guess at most the FIA will tell them "don't do it again".
Can they change their mind? Sure, but when you recently approved of something then how you change your mind matters. Anyhow, I'm just basing my theory on the precedent set by the double diffuser: FIA made rules about what a diffuser is allowed to do. Brawn noticed the FIA forgot to specify the number of diffusers allowed. FIA said it's perfectly fine what Brawn did. Everyone complained. FIA only changed things for the following year. Same thing here: FIA made rules about copying parts. RP noticed the FIA forgot to specify the number of parts copied. FIA said it's perfectly fine what RP did. Everyone complained. Outcome unknown for now.
They will likely get away with it, they approached the FIA pre season about it (apparently). Likely see some amendment in the rules for next season onward about copying designs. bit of a moot point as next season its a fresh aero concept, so unless some team found some magical loophole like the double diffuser we won't see a 2022 car being identical to a 2021 car.
Unless Renault have photos of RP walking out of the Merc factory with parts, I'm struggling to see how Renault's complaint goes anywhere. Renault's just salty because it's quicker than them. [See also RBR and DAS and probably why McLaren aren't bothered by the RP as Renault are]. ...also isn't there a push towards more standardised parts anyway, as part of the cost cap and the 2022 rules rejig?
True they want more shared components to drive down cost. Will Renault kick off when the new regs come in and give the last place team more aero time I wonder? Does smack of sour grapes though, they cant beat them on track so have to remove the opposition another way.
