Abiteboul frustrated: "Racing Point is allowed to change the car more than we are"

Misunderstanding at Abiteboul

That's what team boss Cyril Abiteboul says in conversation with Auto, Motor und Sport. "Racing Point will probably get away with it and that's frustrating. I don't understand it either. We already warned about this when the rule changes were made during the coronabreak."

So Renault saw this loophole coming and they didn't do anything about it, so Lawrence Stroll's team has an advantage. In fact, Renault raised it in vain, but always got the answer that it was part of the package.

"At every meeting we made this point, but we were always told it was part of the package. This package was so important that we didn't want it to fail at any point. If we could have voted on the token line individually, we would never have agreed to it. We had no choice but to accept it."

"It was only later that people realised what it meant, but by then it was already too late to change it for next year. That's the biggest disappointment. I accept it because it's a special rule that only applies to next year."

Racing Point can do more

Due to the current structure and advantage in tokens for Racing Point, they are allowed more than the other teams. Abiteboul says: "We would change a lot more (to the car) if we could. Racing Point is allowed to change more than we are and that's a clear advantage for customer teams that use this model using one year old parts."

That frustration may also have fueled Renault to make a formal protest to Racing Point about the copied Mercedes earlier this year. In the end, Racing Point was fined the points deduction and a fine.