The Formula 1 governing body, FIA on Friday approved a ban on the sort of ‘reverse engineering’ that allowed the Racing Point RP 20 to compete in the 2020 Formula 1 season with a car resembling last year’s Mercedes W1O which won the World championship.
The FIA stated that its World Motor Sport Council(WMSC) approved the changes to the 2021 technical regulations that will prevent the teams from the extensive use of reverse engineering of rivalling teams’ car parts for the design of the car’s aerodynamic surfaces. This happened with the Canadian team, Racing Point whose car sparked a lot of controversy after unveiling the RP20.
This led to a protest by rival teams, like Renault and Ferrari, with Racing Point fined 400,000 euros by race stewards and later docked 15 points for copying the 2019 Mercedes W10’s brake ducts. The team was however allowed to continue competing without having to get rid of offending parts.
There was an appeal by the teams who wanted a tougher form of punishment to be imposed on the Canadian outfit as they were against the appeal. The rival teams later dropped the appeal after FIA issued a clarification on the matter.
“The collaboration between FIA, Formula One and the teams has produced a series of acts… which clarify the responsibilities of each championship participant in the design of the components of a single-seater,” Ferrari said at the time.
The WMSC also gave final approval to the sport’s new Concorde Agreement governing the sport for the next five years. All 10 teams had agreed it already with commercial rights holders Liberty Media.
