Seidl calls on F1 to tighten rules to prevent teams copying
McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl says he would like Formula 1’s technical regulations to be altered to the extent it prevents teams from copying rivals.
Seidl’s comments come in the wake of an FIA investigation into the legality of Racing Point’s 2020 car, which is heavily-based on last year’s championship-winning Mercedes W10.
The Protest – lodged by Renault – is centred around the brake ducts, an area that was originally a listed part but is now no longer as of this season.
Racing Point has continued to refute claims it hasn’t complied with the regulations, and is optimistic it has enough evidence to suggest it has followed the letter of the law.
Having recently expressed his concern that F1 risked becoming a “copying championship”, Seidl continued to voice his opinion on what action needs to be taken on the matter.
“There’s obviously copying [which] is not just copying. There’s copying which has always been around in Formula 1, and which is part of Formula 1,” Seidl said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“We have tried to analyse what competitors are doing by pictures that are publicly available, pictures you can take in the pit lane or on-track. I think no-one has any problem with copying parts or cars from these pictures.
“What is more important is to simply clarify and maybe also change the regulations on what can be done in terms of copying beyond this copying, where you only use publicly-available information.
“There’s room in the regulations at the moment that you can do actually a lot more, that you can do co-operations on wind tunnel technology, on the way you use the wind tunnel, on the way how you map your car in the wind tunnel.
“Also in the way how you get access to pictures of cars, and so on. I think that’s something that needs to be clarified, that we have a clear direction on what Formula 1 wants to allow there in the future.”
In response to its formal protest of the RP20, Renault made it clear this is to seek answers about the sport’s direction in relation to teams collaborating between each other.
Echoing Renault’s comments, Seidl added: “It’s not necessarily about doing something legal or illegal.
“As I said many times, there is room in the regulations to do a lot more than just take pictures in the pit lane. That’s why we think it’s important to have these clarifications now.”