Racing Point have been given a 15-point deduction after the stewards ruled they broke the sporting regulations by using rear brake ducts which were designed by Mercedes.
The points deduction applies to the teams’ championship standings only. The drivers’ standings are unaffected.
Racing Point’s penalty means they have fallen to sixth in the championship behind Renault.
F1 constructors championship after the 2020 British Grand Prix
| Team | Total | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercedes | 146 |
| 2 | Red Bull | 78 |
| 3 | McLaren | 51 |
| 4 | Ferrari | 43 |
| 5 | Renault | 32 |
| 6 | Racing Point | 27 |
| 7 | AlphaTauri | 13 |
| 8 | Alfa Romeo | 2 |
| 9 | Haas | 1 |
| 10 | Williams | 0 |
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F1 drivers championship after the 2020 British Grand Prix
| Driver | Total | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | 88 |
| 2 | Valtteri Bottas | 58 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | 52 |
| 4 | Lando Norris | 36 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | 33 |
| 6 | Alexander Albon | 26 |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | 22 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll | 20 |
| 8 | Daniel Ricciardo | 20 |
| 10 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 15 |
| 11 | Esteban Ocon | 12 |
| 11 | Pierre Gasly | 12 |
| 13 | Sebastian Vettel | 10 |
| 14 | Antonio Giovinazzi | 2 |
| 15 | Daniil Kvyat | 1 |
| 15 | Kevin Magnussen | 1 |
| 17 | Kimi Raikkonen | 0 |
| 17 | Nicholas Latifi | 0 |
| 17 | George Russell | 0 |
| 17 | Romain Grosjean | 0 |
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2020 British Grand Prix
- Racing Point given 15-point deduction and fined £360,000 as stewards uphold Renault protest
- Missed chance to avoid Hamilton’s puncture “a mistake that could have cost us dearly”
- 2020 British Grand Prix Star Performers
- Silverstone restoring Becketts kerb to previous specification following tyre cuts
- Pirelli investigation reveals ‘highest forces ever’ contributed to Silverstone punctures
Jose Lopes da Silva
7th August 2020, 11:06
“I can’t separate the driver from the car.” Niki Lauda, 1995
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
7th August 2020, 11:10
They should have lost all their points. Either your car is legal or it isn’t. An illegal car should not acquire any points.
Few years back one of the Renaults was disqualified for having too high fuel load for half a second because of hitting a curb at Singapore, if my memory is correct. They did not gain any points that race with that car. It wasn’t as big as an infringement as this is. How does that lead to DSQ and this to a fine and 15 points reduction out of 42 is beyond me.
They knew their brake ducts were under investigation. Yet they took the risk to keep using them. They should suffer the consequences.
D@m@7@ (@domo70)
7th August 2020, 11:17
that’s Typical of FIA look at Ferrari story, this now….. and lets not talk about previous decision in favor of Merks and Redbull in the past……
Harry (@harrydymond)
7th August 2020, 11:36
Correct. And the RP car is legal. There was/is no breach of the technical regulations so the car is legal. RP broke the sporting regs.
The Renault DSQ to which you refer was an infringement of the technical regulations.
Lee1
7th August 2020, 12:19
Didn’t McLaren get disqualified for breaking the sporting regulations in 2007?
Dale
7th August 2020, 12:55
They got excluded from the championship.
Lee1
7th August 2020, 13:17
Exactly
MacLeod (@macleod)
7th August 2020, 13:44
they did more then copy they stole the whole design of the car.
Lee1
7th August 2020, 14:14
Which Renault also did yet did not get disqualified… Plus the whole thing was kicked off by Ferrari cheating with a flexible floor… and they got away with it too.
Anyway my point was there is precedent for getting disqualified for breaking sporting regs.
anon
7th August 2020, 11:36
@spafrancorchamps Ricciardo was disqualified from qualifying after his MGU-K briefly exceeded the permitted maximum power output, although the stewards themselves did not explicitly state anything about the time interval – only Renault made claims about the timeframe in their statements to the press.
That said, if you want teams to “suffer the consequences”, then do you believe that Renault should have had all of the points that they had scored until the 2019 Japanese GP stripped from them for the 2019 season?
Renault’s automated brake bias adjustment system was ruled to be a breach of the sporting regulations – there were in fact quite a few people who’d been asking since the pre-season tests that year how it was legal, because Renault had released onboard footage from one pre-season test which showed the brake bias automatically changing for each corner whilst Ricciardo was driving. By your logic, Renault scored 68 points with a car that was illegal and should therefore have been stripped of those points.
In fact, it could be pointed out that Renault probably had a car that was illegal for years – Grosjean has confirmed that they were using that automatic brake bias adjustment system when he was driving for the team, so by that definition every single car that Renault produced from at least 2015 (possibly earlier) until the 2019 Japanese GP were illegal.
AliceD (@aliced)
7th August 2020, 13:04
People who judge things normally give a verdict that they feel leads to the best result. You cannot just blindly apply laws, they are more of a guide, if you blindly apply laws you end up with everyone in jail or worse as well as eventually Skynet.
Salty (@salty)
7th August 2020, 11:17
As it’s 7.5 points per car, shouldn’t the drivers point be adjusted too?
DAllein (@)
7th August 2020, 11:22
No
Harry (@harrydymond)
7th August 2020, 11:39
From the other article on this: “The points deduction is being applied to the team’s constructors championship points totals only and does not affect its drivers’ scores in their championship.”
Jockey Ewing
7th August 2020, 11:48
Only punishing the constructor is not unprecedented in F1. And to some extent sometimes it’s proper to only punish the constructor but not the driver.
jonners99 (@jonners99)
7th August 2020, 11:21
If the car is against the rules, this feels very lenient. F1.com is reporting they are fined 400,000 euro as well. Which F1.com claims is a “heavy fine”, I think Mclaren might quibble with that definition of heavy.
RAVEEN
7th August 2020, 11:34
What will racing point do now, will they use the same brake ducts?. and will they appeal?, i heard they dont have a new design
John Ballantyne
7th August 2020, 12:27
If Racing Point is guilty of cloning a Mercedes component, and goodness knows what other parts, isn’t Mercedes an accomplice?
bookgrub (@bookgrub)
7th August 2020, 12:33
Since Mercedes provided the part to Racing Point in 2019 perfectly legally, that doesn’t necessarily follow.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
7th August 2020, 13:52
Apparently Mercedes provided the design for the rear brake ducts in January 2020 on the last day that they were “listed parts”, well after they were useful for the 2019 car.
As if both teams didn’t know what the purpose of this was.
Sihrtogg (@sihrtogg)
7th August 2020, 12:35
How did they come 15 points? Was it a calculation, a rule, or did they just pick a number?
Dale
7th August 2020, 12:56
Threw a dart at a board.
Skianix
7th August 2020, 13:01
the nearest round number tha put them behind renault
MacLeod (@macleod)
7th August 2020, 13:47
I have twenty balls with the number 1 to 20 in this back without looking take one. And you pick 15 so they deduct 15 points.