Lance Stroll, Racing Point, Spa-Francorchamps, 2020

Ferrari confirm intention to appeal Racing Point’s reprimand over brake ducts at Spa

2020 Belgian Grand Prix

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Ferrari have given notice of their intention to appeal the latest reprimanded issued to Racing Points over the brake ducts the team raced in today’s Belgian Grand Prix.

In line with the penalties handed down against Racing Point at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, the stewards reprimanded the team for using the same rear brake duct design which was previously protested by Renault.

Renault and Ferrari originally announced they would appeal those penalties, believing they were too lenient. However Renault later dropped its appeal plans, leaving Ferrari the sole team still pursuing the case against Racing Point.

Ferrari has therefore notified the Belgian Grand Prix stewards it intends to protest the reprimand which was issued to Racing Point today. It has 96 hours to formally submit its appeal.

According to the stewards, Racing Point confirmed it has used the same brake ducts this weekend as in the previous five rounds, which date back to Renault’s first protest against the team at the Styrian Grand Prix. “The facts in this case are therefore identical to the situation in the previous five grand prix,” noted the stewards.

“The stewards of the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix note the belief of the stewards at the preceding events that it is important for the orderly conduct of the sport that the interpretation of the regulations by the stewards be reasonably consistent,” they added. “The stewards of the 2020 Belgium Grand Prix in general support that view, and also the view that where possible this same consistency should apply to penalties.”

“In relation to penalty, noting our comments above concerning consistency, we believe we must impose a Reprimand on BWT Racing Point F1 Team as the competitor of cars 11 [Sergio Perez] and 18 [Lance Stroll],” they concluded.

This article will be updated

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2020 Belgian Grand Prix

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25 comments on “Ferrari confirm intention to appeal Racing Point’s reprimand over brake ducts at Spa”

  1. Do you think that if Ferrari was in a better place points wise, the decision could have been different?

    1. Dunno. What do they have to gain from that ? A few points ? Could make a difference at the end of the year, allowing them to gain 1 position in the raking and earning more $. But that really make a difference to Ferrari ? Not sure… Or like Renault, they want to get to the bottom of things and fully clarify the rules to prepare their relationship with Alfa and Haas… In my opinion, this is more likely the reason for this appeal…

  2. Sore losers…

    1. Childish comment

      1. Accurate, though.

  3. Ferrari doing their utmost best to finish in the top 5 this year. By getting a team disqualified. Otherwise by the look of things, 6th is the best they can manage. Specially now that Renault is also in the mix.

  4. Maybe Ferrari should concentrate on themselves? Trying to bargain for some points against a midfield Racing Point team looks so ridiculous from Ferrari!

  5. disappointing from a Ferrari point of view…very disappointing. :(

    1. Get a Kleenex

      1. Childish comment.

  6. The Concorde Agreement has been signed, the FIA has confirmed it’s intention to tighten the rules concerning copying. Why is Ferrari continuing to appeal? It can only be because of the token system, I can’t think of anything else which is still under discussion.

    I think Ferrari is overplaying it’s hand. After Renault pulled out we can be pretty sure that no new evidence will be introduced in the appeal hearings. So who is Ferrari trying to pressure? And with what?

    1. Because Ferrari knows Mercedes are far more implicated than the FIA have discovered or have admitted in the first ruling … & this is the clarity they are looking for from the ICA.
      One team cannot be guilty of receiving parts illegally, without another team also being guilty of providing them illegally.

      Then there are the inside stories about Mercedes providing far more than just brake ducts to Racing Point for their 2020 car …

      Which is also why Toto is so desperate for this not to go to the ICA, & has been using every possible bit of leverage to prevent it … even mafia style threats, and this weekend attacking the decision makers at Ferrari to try put their jobs in jeopardy.
      It’s also why Toto quickly went from a critic of the new teams agreement to suddenly signing up to it.

      Toto is a cat on a hot tin roof at the moment.

    2. also because, if its true Mercedes its way to much implicated in this tracing point soap opera, Ferrari want to bring them down too…. i read an article where Ferrari retain Mercedes responsible for talking to FIA about their Engine Scam, apparently they got information illegal about the Cheating Ferrari Engine and they talk to FIA about this … and convince them to start an investigation… I’ll try to find that article so i can post the link…. but if this is true ( with a BIG IF ) Ferrari and Mercedes, they are at serious war behind close doors…..

  7. Maybe Toto was referring to this in his broadside yesterday!

  8. I think Ferrari’s decision to pursue the appeal against the penalty imposed on Racing Point is directly related to the secret agreement they arrived at with the FIA that is responsible for the extreme loss in engine performance.
    It seems that Ferrari are basically in the position of regretting the secret agreement because if had it gone through the normal complaints process, they could have kept the extra performance by paying a heft fine and accepting a reprimand at all subsequent races.

    1. no they couldn’t. They were cheating. They should consider themselves lucky that they got that deal from the fia. They should have been disqualified from the 2019 season & lost all its prize money. Ferrari are doing this because of the token system for next year and are terrified that racing point will get the Mercedes rear suspension on their 2021 car without having to use any tokens. They are doing this hoping the fia give them a deal.

      1. No they weren’t.
        Their engines were checked on a number of occasions last year and never found to be against the rules.
        No teams ever officially protested the legality of the engines, so no ruling and further investigation could ever be forced.

        At the end of the season, Ferrari communicated with the FIA about ongoing developments and the legality of those changes – as every team does when they want confirmation that they are understanding the regulations the same was as the FIA. At this point they both discovered that they disagreed on the way the rule is to be interpreted … with neither side able to prove that the other was wrong or that they were definitively right.
        It’s called an impasse … look it up.

        They agreed to disagree and came to an subsequent agreement on how to handle that, which is what no one else is is privy to … but it meant they had to change their engine for the FIA to be 100% happy, and the FIA had to make sure that none of the other engine manufacturers were benefiting from the same interpretation Ferrari had & were prevented from using any further – & Ferrari provided assistance on how the FIA could police that.

        Now, suddenly mid-season we are seeing ‘party modes’ banned … join the dots.

        1. Sorry I joined the dots and it doesn’t lead to the party mode ban instead the dots lead to the FIA trying to equalise the engines by eliminating the extreme end of engine power spectrum.

        2. Dale, there seem to be some rather strange elements to your attempted defence of Ferrari there.

          Nobody has provided any evidence for Ferrari approaching the FIA with queries about interpretation of the regulations in 2019, nor any evidence of this supposed “impasse” on the interpretation of the rules – including Ferrari themselves, even though they could have used such a narrative to diffuse the criticism they faced, or the FIA when discussing the sequence of events. Why would it be to the benefit of either side to so completely cover up that sequence of events given that it would paint both sides in a much better light to say that it was a disagreement about proposed future developments of the engine? If such an impasse existed, why would it then require a major investigation by the FIA into Ferrari’s current engine designs and why would it then require a private settlement afterwards at all?

          If, as you claim, Ferrari was doing everything above board and this was about future developments, then why would you need an investigation in the first place when those changes have never been used? Why the need for any sort of settlement at all if Ferrari has never transgressed the rules then? It feels like you want to create a narrative to deny to yourself the thought that Ferrari could have possibly done anything wrong at any point.

          As for the comments about the “party modes” ban, we’ve had an individual here who is employed by FOM state that it is exactly for the reason that most believe it is – that the commercial rights holders have pressurised the FIA into making the change in a ham-fisted attempt to “spice up the show” in the hope that it might reduce Mercedes’s advantage and bring Red Bull into the title fight.

      2. @ Adam – Seems you have some info on the Ferrari saga that I have not seen. Please share, as I for one do not know any detail of what or how they were cheating and therefore I don’t know if the deal they got was appropriate.
        I do know that Tracing Point are cheating by using illegal brake ducts, every race this year so far. So Ferrari should not actually need to appeal, the stewards should just penalize accordingly, which they did, but Ferrari feel it is not enough.

  9. How low can you go? Rock bottom, then take out a red shovel and start digging?

    From tge makers of Haas 1.0, cheaters of the year 2019.

    Even if Mercedes and Aston Martin get disqualified, Ferrari will still struggle getting in to Q3.

  10. Ferrari need to be dragged through mud for their secret settlement, and Stroll surely has resources to bring MaFIA down to its knees.

    1. @chaitanya wow you should do stand up comnedy MaFia impressive…..

  11. @chaitanya wow you should do stand up comnedy MaFia impressive…..

  12. Ferrari should concentrate on making their car and Alfa Romeo car faster.

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