Mercedes link not a factor in McLaren withdrawing Racing Point appeal - Brown

Spanish Grand Prix

Mercedes link not a factor in McLaren withdrawing Racing Point appeal - Brown

Brown dismisses claims Mercedes influenced McLaren's decision to withdraw from the appeal process

Sam Hall

Saturday 15 August 2020 09:30

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has dismissed the notion that 2021 power unit supplier Mercedes had any influence on the team's decision to withdraw its appeal against the sanction handed to Racing Point.

While Ferrari and Renault have pressed on with appealing the FIA sanction handed to Racing Point for running illegal rear brake ducts, McLaren and Williams have both withdrawn from the process.

Racing Point and Williams are currently powered by Mercedes and McLaren will swap its Renault power units for Mercedes power in 2021.

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Asked directly about the Mercedes connection, Brown said: “No. I don’t know why Williams decided not to go forward. I know why we didn’t.

“We’re an independent team. Renault has been a great partner, continues to be a great partner, but we certainly like to fight with them on the track when we can. We’re just doing what we think is best for ourselves.”

At the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, Brown said the FIA findings proved the Racing Point claims that the RP20 had been designed by photography as "BS". One week on, and Brawn has performed a heel turn.

Explaining this change of heart, Brown added: “When we first read the verdict, you’ve got a very small window to notify whether you intend to appeal, so given it’s the start of a race weekend you really don’t have enough time to get stuck into it, and I think there were enough contradictory statements between what Racing Point had claimed between drawings and unique IP and design etc and the findings of the FIA, that we wanted to put that in to just give us time to get through the weekend and ultimately review the situation.

“Ultimately, [we] took good comfort in a lot of conversations with the FIA and their intent to clarify the rule and, most importantly, clarify that this is indeed a true constructors’ championship for the future.

“So you’ve got to let the FIA and governing body follow through on that and that’s ultimately why we decided to step back and focus on ourselves and let the FIA do their job.”