'Fairer sport': Renault's protest against rival for 'future of F1'

Renault's ongoing protest against the Racing Point cars is also about the future of Formula One racing, the French team's executive director Marcin Budkowski said on Friday.

Former champions Renault questioned the legality of their rivals' Mercedes-lookalike cars after last weekend's Styrian Grand Prix in Austria.

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"I think for us it’s important to clarify... what is permissible and what isn’t for this season," Budkowski told reporters in a video news conference at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

"But also what Formula One wants in the future. What is the model we want?

"Do we want a model where we have 10 teams independently fighting each other, especially in the context of a fairer sport, a more equal distribution of funds, a cost cap, so all teams eventually come to a similar level of spending - maybe not straightaway but with time.

"There's a great opportunity, together with the '22 regulations, the technical regulations with the car being able to follow each other, overtake each other, [creating] better racing.

"There's a great opportunity for the sport to have 10 teams fighting on equal terms, and for us it's important to clarify what level of exchanges are permissible.

"Is it permissible to get parts or get geometries from another team and use them on your car or not? Because we don't think that's the right model for F1 in the future.

"It's really beyond the protest, beyond this race. It's what kind of model we want for the future of F1."

The protest focuses on the Racing Point brake ducts, and a comparison with those on last year's Mercedes.

Renault claims Racing Point has broken rules by using a listed part that was designed by a competitor - therefore contravening regulations.

"Basically we contend that the brake ducts front and rear that are used on the Racing Point are effectively a Mercedes design, and so have been designed by another competitor," says Budkowski.

"We believe that these geometries in use in the Racing Point are effectively the exact design of Mercedes from last year, potentially with some minor modifications to adapt them to the Racing Point, or some minor evolutions, but nevertheless it's not a Racing Point design.

"So it's not their intellectual property. And that's explicitly banned in the regulations."

Canadian-owned Racing Point, who use Mercedes engines and gearboxes, have made no secret of copying last year's winning Mercedes but say they followed rules that teams must design certain listed parts for themselves.

Racing Point confident of being cleared

In a statement released last week, Racing Point strongly denied any wrongdoing and claims that Renault's criticism was "poorly informed".

"Any and all suggestion of wrongdoing is firmly rejected and the team will take all steps necessary to ensure the correct application of the regulations to the facts," the statement read.

"Prior to the start of the season, the team co-operated with the FIA and satisfactorily addressed all questions regarding the origins of the designs of the RP20.

"The team is confident that the protest will be dismissed once it has presented its response."

A decision is unlikely for several weeks but Racing Point principal Otmar Szafnauer was confident his team's case was 'bulletproof'.

"There are things that the camera can't see, especially the internal surfaces of a brake duct, for example, that we completely designed and developed ourselves," he said.

The controversy has also revived a long-standing debate about 'customer cars' - ones provided by a constructor for another team to race.

McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl spoke earlier of the risk of Formula One becoming 'a copying championship' with only two or three real constructors rather than 10 independent ones.

Christian Horner, boss of Red Bull Racing which also has AlphaTauri as a junior team, said the outcome of the protest would "dictate strategies for different teams for next year. So a lot weighs on that.

"The FIA just need to say yes they're fine with it or obviously no, they're not. A ruling on that sooner rather than later for all teams would be beneficial."

with Yahoo Sport staff