Frustration over RP20 shows other teams 'haven't stepped up' says Racing Point tech chief

Any complaints directed towards Racing Point’s Mercedes-esque RP20 are born out of frustration, says their Technical Director Andrew Green, who added that other teams “haven’t stepped up to the plate” ahead of the 2020 season.

Some of the teams are understood to have been critical of the new car because of its similarities to last year's Mercedes W10, but Green fiercely defended his team's design approach on Friday morning, just as Sergio Perez was setting the team's fastest time of pre-season testing on the final day of running in Barcelona.

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“I think [complaints from other teams] boil down to the fact that some of the teams may not have done as good a job as they should have done, and I think we’re probably seeing that," he said.

“We’ve a team that finished fourth two years on the trot [as Force India, in 2016 and 2017] with next to no money at all – we were absolutely hand to mouth – and we finished fourth in the championship, we beat the likes of McLaren, that was what we could do that with next to nothing.

“For people to think, to take a team like that and inject money and resources in it, and it wasn’t going to improve, was just naive. And I think they just haven’t stepped up to the plate.

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“So I think a lot of their frustration is looking inwards: ‘Crikey, we haven’t done a very good job’ – that’s what I’d be I’d be thinking if I was looking from the outside in. I’d be looking at my own department: ‘C’mon guys what on earth have you been playing at?’,” he added.

The team formerly known as Force India adopted Mercedes’ design philosophy of a low-rake car after finishing seventh in 2018 and again in 2019 as Racing Point after Lawrence Stroll’s takeover. And that healthy cash injection from the new owner enabled the team to adopt Mercedes’ design approach, explained Green.

“It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a very long time and hadn’t had the budget to do. This is a 100% natural thing for us to do.

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“It gives us encouragement that people are talking about us, complaining about us. That is a good indication to me that we’re doing something good. If we were at the bottom of the pack, nobody would be mentioning what we’ve done.”

With Perez having called the RP20 the "most solid package" he's had in pre-season testing, everything seems to be looking rosy for the team in pink ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

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