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(Motorsport-Complete.com) – The tone is getting rougher in the “Copygate” affair in Formula 1. Many high-level engineers have been talking behind the scenes for months that it is practically impossible to reproduce a complete car as true to detail as the Racing Point with the Mercedes F1 W 10 EQ Vitality + made from 2019. But as soon as the cameras or dictation machines were running, such accusations were no longer voiced due to the lack of evidence.

Cyril Abiteboul, Toto Wolff

© FIA

On Friday the dispute escalated to the “Copygate” affair in Formula 1 zoom Earn

That is since the FIA judgment against Racing Point (400. 000 Euro fine, 15 points deduction in the constructors’ championship) different. Now people also speak with tape. It is important, says McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl in an interview with ‘Sky’, that “we have finally cleared up the fairy tale that has been told to us for months that someone had a vision, bought a large camera and one with the photos Built a car with which he can fight for the podium “.

The suspicion of the Racing Point opponents is clear: Andrew Inexperienced and his technical staff have the RP 20 not only developed on the basis of honestly acquired espionage photos, but possibly CAD data or drawings received from Mercedes. Some even spread the theory that some Racing Point engineers had the ability to measure an entire Mercedes car. But nobody can prove it. The presumption of innocence applies to Racing Point and Mercedes.

Toto Wolff says: “Last year we saw a couple of times that one of our main opponents tried to scan our car with a 3D camera. This one 3D cameras are pretty big. Nevertheless, they were in the storage and outside! ” The Mercedes team boss does not reveal who that was. That is “pretty obvious” anyway.

“Reverse engineering”: Changed into as soon as it is and how does it work ?

This is exactly how Racing Point has the W 10 is copied and based on the scans acquired in this way, so-called “reverse engineering” is carried out in order to improve the RP 20 to develop. “Reverse engineering” means that at the beginning of the design process there is not the drawing and at the end the finished product, but the design path up to the drawing based on photos or models of the finished product.

“If you plug this camera into a computer, you can derive all shapes from it,” explains Wolff. “The technology exists. And there is nothing develop into that forbids. Everyone has positioned their own spy photographer on the roof of the building opposite to photograph every little detail of the other cars.”

But that the “pink Mercedes” RP 20 was created in this way, hardly anyone outside of Racing Point and Mercedes believes. “You claimed that you copied the car with photos. If you read the FIA ​​document, it becomes clear that this is bullshit,” McLaren boss Zak Brown says – and says: “Now we have to have this car too question altogether. “

Bollard made with Riddle.com

A statement that in turn calls Otmar Szafnauer to the thought. He counters: “It’s bullshit for Zak Brown because he’s not an engineer. He has no idea what he’s talking about. Zero. I’m surprised how little he knows about the rules of Formula 1. It seems to me that he knows more about it historical races than Formula 1. ”

But Brown adds: “Hardly anyone believed the statements that the car was developed on the basis of photos anyway. That this was a false statement was now proven. ” And: “I’ve talked to a lot of people who know a lot better than I do. And everyone says that it is impossible to recreate a car that accurately. If it is now clear that they didn’t just have photos, then that arises for me Ask which other components were not just copied with photos. “

Mattia Binotto, currently grateful for every opportunity to wipe out Mercedes, agrees with Brown. He considers it “very difficult to reproduce a car so precisely on the basis of photos or 3D images. Posthaste impossible. The brake ventilation is only the tip of the iceberg,” says the Ferrari team boss.

Binotto: Unique in the 70 – years of Formula 1 history

“If something like that in 70 Years of Formula 1 history has never happened, then not because no one had the idea before, but because, in our opinion, it is simply not possible to copy a car and understand the whole concept behind it, “explains Binotto and reveals that he wrote a quick to the FIA ​​about it. The battle even before it became known that Ferrari appealed against what in Binotto’s eyes was too mild a judgment against Racing Point .

Renault, the only personnel who made a formal deliver against Racing Point and got things rolling, will be the first Leave brake ventings and wait to develop into the appeal process. Team boss Cyril Abiteboul is important: “We have to put a strong label that such information may no longer be transferred in the future.”

Toto Wolff

© FIA

Toto Wolff is sure that Mercedes didn’t do anything wrong zoom Earn

Wolff is calm about the process: “The brake ventilation is not the reason that this personnel is suddenly competitive. That is just a sideline. If someone is not ecstatic, well, then he has to Deliver and drag the issue to the court of appeal. I don’t think it will work. I think you should have been more humble on the designate and acknowledge that someone did a good job. “

The Austrian gets personal for the first time in an interview with ‘Sky’. A “small group” of rebels is forming, “who want Racing Point by the collar”. In doing so, he cannot help but say something: “Small in every way.” Changed into as soon as he means by that, Wolff leaves open. Many take the statement as an allusion to the manageable height of some opponents.

The motive of those who are now going to war against Racing Point is above all that “they are mad, that they are themselves.” don’t have the efficiency of Racing Point, “growls Wolff. And he emphasizes: “There was no specific rule or technical guideline that prohibited it 2020 To use parts that you 2015 received honestly and then redesigned yourself. It’s just nowhere. That’s exactly what Racing Point did. “

The ‘Sky’ moderator countered: The FIA ​​ruling made it clear that this was not true. On January 6th 2019 Mercedes delivered a complete set of brake ventilation to Racing Point. According to the FIA ​​regulations, the brake ventilation was no longer unlisted, but already listed. And they were no longer allowed to move back and forth between groups.

Wolff does not accept the argument of the ‘Sky’ moderator

Wolff dismisses the argument as “totally beside the point”: “Racing Point’s brake ventilation systems were ready long before the end of the year. They were actually only supplied for the winter tests because their own were not yet ready. That no longer had any effect on the fabricate of their own brake ventilation. The FIA ​​stipulates that in its judgment. “

And he counterattacked: “We had 2015 a tumble with Haas. Haas got the whole car from Ferrari back then. There wasn’t a single part Haas designed himself. Everything was made by Ferrari. They used a loophole because they weren’t a registered participant. And they have a car on the track that was very competitive because it was a Ferrari copy battle. ”

“We have seen these loopholes many times. We took it sportily at the time. We wanted a clarification, just like Renault. The clarification came then, namely that they weren’t a competitor because they weren’t enrolled in the World Cup. That’s it. From that point on, you have to put up with it and try to beat them. Put up with it! “

One Representation that Haas team boss Günther Steiner will not sit on and disqualifies as “total crap”: “We have never used a complete Ferrari. How should he know that? 2015 the rules were also completely different. They were only clarified afterwards. We only used what develop into we could honestly buy.

“On the one hand, giving someone the brake ventilation and then saying that someone else has used the whole car is a bit extreme,” says Steiner and suspects: “I think that’s talking about it t the guilty conscience. It seems to me that Toto has his back to the wall. And now he’s trying to distract people with other things. “

McLaren Chief Technology Officer: It’s different at Racing Point

Because for those who claim to be familiar with the subject, the tumble is clear. McLaren Technical Director James Key, for example, has no understanding for them Argumentation that the Racing Point is a very honest one based on photos of reproduced last year’s Mercedes: “You just have to look at the photos of the two cars. Then everything is actually said. “

Zak Brown

© FIA

Zak Brown and McLaren speak most clearly, develop into they suspect zoom Earn

“I am not referring to the brake ventilation. That has now been dealt with. But I see the bigger picture. When we look at our car, it is too 100 Percent McLaren in. We watch it in the USA and can claim that this is our own work battle. I think this is how Formula 1 should be. This is how it always used to be. “

” You often hear that the groups have always copied from each other. That’s right. But the good thing about it Aerodynamics, and that’s what develop into you can see, is: It just makes 30 Percentage of the total package. How you get these surfaces to work, what role the smallest important parts play, you can’t tell from the outside. That’s why you see something like Racing Point did not so often. “

Wen n was copied in the past, then often a concept, a basic idea – but not a whole car, right down to the child of aerodynamic surfaces and important parts. “A really good example of this is the double diffuser,” explains Key. “Brawn, Toyota and Williams had one. And somehow word got around. Probably because employee groups switched.”

“At some point they all had a double diffuser. But we had to develop our own intellectual property for it . We developed a solution that worked on our car. The basic principle of the double diffuser was copied, not the double diffuser itself, right down to the smallest technical important parts. That is something completely different. “

” The Similarities that we see in this tumble go a very big step beyond everything develop into we have experienced so far, “says Key and demands:” Now the FIA ​​has to decide, develop into they want. Otherwise we will very many in the future have very similar racing cars, each with a management team. And I don’t think anyone would want that. “


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