General
Racing Point upgrades again point of discussion among teams
- GPblog.com
Racing Point can't escape it. One protest hasn't even ended yet or there are already complaints about the legality of the car or the way the team operates. This time it's about the homologation of certain parts, because here too Racing Point gets away with it according to Auto, Motor und Sport.
Token system
Racing Point has chosen to rebuild the Mercedes W10 of 2019 in 2020. Many protests came from several teams. Renault is currently at the forefront with their protest against the legality of the RP20.
Starting this season, tokens will have to be used to improve the car on certain points. Each team will receive two tokens and may use them to improve certain parts of the car that are actually frozen. Each part has a certain value of tokens, so a whole suspension can cost one token and only a small part can cost half a token.
Loophole in the system
Because Racing Point is not currently buying parts of the current Mercedes, but from the previous year, the team can upgrade the car several times. For example, the gearbox and suspension come directly from the W10 of 2019.
So Racing Point has the advantage because the team has chosen to follow the 2020 concept in 2021. With this they get the evolutions on the gearbox and suspension almost for free. As long as Racing Point upgrade to 2020 parts of the Mercedes, it will not cost them any tokens according to the current status.
AlphaTauri also seems to enjoy this, but from the Red Bull Racing team. The other teams are afraid that Racing Point, which will go through life as Aston Martin from 2021, could take a huge step in the winter, while other teams are virtually at a standstill.