Williams withdraw from Racing Point appeal process

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Williams withdraw from Racing Point appeal process

Williams and McLaren have both walked away from the appeal against Racing Point

Sam Hall

Wednesday 12 August 2020 11:04

Williams has dropped its appeal against the FIA sanction handed to Racing Point for running illegal rear brake ducts.

Williams was among five teams to give the FIA notice of intent to appeal the Racing Point punishment on before the 9:30 BST deadline on Saturday morning, but the team has now elected not to proceed with its appeal.

A statement from the team read: "After careful consideration, Williams have elected not to proceed with the formal appeal. We believe the FIA’s decision to seek the prohibition of extensive car copying for 2021 onwards addresses our most fundamental concern and reasserts the role and responsibility of a constructor within the sport, which is fundamental to Formula 1’s DNA and Williams core beliefs and principles."

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As referenced in the statement, FIA head of single-seater technical matters Nikolas Tombazis said after teams gave notice of intent to appeal: "We don’t want next year to have eight or ten Mercedes’ or copies of Mercedes on the grid where the main skill becomes how you do this process.

“We don’t want this to become the norm of Formula 1 and we do plan in the very short notice to introduce some amendments to the 2021 sporting regulations that will prevent this from becoming the norm.

“It will prevent teams from using extensive parts of photos to copy whole portions of other cars in the way that Racing Point has done.

“We will still accept individual components to be copied and local areas, but we don’t want the whole car to be fundamentally a copy of another car.”

Ferrari and Renault have confirmed they will continue with the appeal process but a McLaren spokesperson informed GPFans on Tuesday evening that the team will not be continuing with the process.