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How awesome Verstappen defeated troubled Mercedes ‘This was my opportunity to fight them’ PLUS Da Costa takes Formula E crown Turkington on top amid BTCC drama Ricardo puts you first Motorsport performance that’s in a league of its own Just as our clients aspire not only to get to the top, but to stay there, Ricardo continues to evolve its expertise and skills in the design, development and production of high-performance transmissions. Over the past 95 years, Ricardo has been perfecting the art of drivelines and transmissions in the rapidly evolving world of motorsport. Fundamental to our success has been the close cooperation between our customers and our dedicated team of professionals, always putting our customers first. The results of such a close partnership have been reflected in numerous class and outright victories in the world’s most prestigious endurance races. With transmission technology in every class at the 2016 Le Mans, we continue to assist our customers to master the science behind the art. Find out how our experts put you first. Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)1926 319319 Copyright © Ricardo plc | V2 17F U Delivering Excellence Through Innovation & Technology www.ricardo.com SUTTON COVER IMAGE Andy Hone/Motorsport Images Dominant Mercedes PIT & PADDOCK 4 Racing Point penalty angers teams defeated by tyres and 6 No spectators at this year’s Le Mans 8 Blomqvist to get 24 Hours debut a tenacious Verstappen 9 Spanish GP preview 11 Opinion: Alex Kalinauckas 13 Opinion: Gary Watkins The sheer pace of the Mercedes W11 – and the truncated nature of the 15 Feedback: your letters 2020 Formula 1 campaign – had raised the prospect of a clean sweep of the season’s races by the black cars. McLaren famously only lost RACE CENTRE one race in 1988, Ferrari won 15 out of 17 grands prix in 2002, and 16 70th Anniversary GP report and analysis Mercedes also lost twice in the 21-race 2016 championship. 32 Storming da Costa seals Formula E title In terms of absolute speed – normally best seen in qualifying, 42 Turkington on top as BTCC rivals wilt depending on the weather – so far this season Mercedes has an 50 World of Sport: Formula 2; Formula 3; average advantage of 1.019%. That is the biggest margin since Porsche Supercup; Euroformula Open; GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup; the Williams FW15C was 1.706% clear of the opposition in 1993. NASCAR Cup; Super GT; MotoGP But, fortunately for neutrals, racing throws up many more variables. As Alex Kalinauckas shows in our report on page 16, last weekend’s CLUB AUTOSPORT shock Silverstone result was largely down to two main factors. The 68 Herbert to go historic F1 racing fi rst was Max Verstappen, who has been utterly superb so far this 70 Jordan plots more Mini outings aft er win season and is primed for any opportunity that comes his way. And 73 Opinion: Stephen Lickorish the second is the factor that gave him that chance: the capricious 74 National reports: Brands Hatch; nature of the Pirelli tyres combined with the characteristics of the W11. Oulton Park; Snetterton You could argue that having the best racing car in the world hamstrung by its rubber isn’t really in the spirit of F1, but we’ve been FINISHING STRAIGHT 78 What’s on this week here before (2012 anyone?). And last weekend’s result was a boost 80 From the archive: 1950 British GP for F1, underlined the sense of changing the compounds from the 82 Autosport 70: Ferrari in 1982 week before, and set up a new storyline for the hot races ahead. SUBSCRIPTION OFFER 38 Special deals for Autosport NEXT WEEK 20 AUGUST VISIT AUTOSPORT.COM Spanish GP/Indy 500 For other ways to read Britain’s We bring you the F1 action best motorsport weekly Kevin Turner from Spain and preview Editor America’s big race [email protected] HAVE YOUR SAY, GET IN TOUCH Autosport editorial Autosport Media UK Ltd @ 1 Eton Street E-mail Visit our website Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube Richmond autosport@ autosport.com twitter.com/ facebook.com/ instagram.com/ youtube.com/ TW9 1AG autosport.com autosport autosport autosport AUTOSPORTdotcom 13 AUGUST 2020 AUTOSPORT.COM 3 K C A B D E E F K O N O C I N I P O O O D Y S R D E V O A RACING POINT RIVALS FURIOUS R T P N FORMULA 1 constructors’ championship penalty, a €400,000 fine O C and two reprimands. But the team is permitted to + O The Racing Point Formula 1 team has been hit with a continue to use the brake ducts on its car for the rest of E points penalty and a fine after it was deemed to have the season as the part itself is not illegal, and therefore T T copied the design of Mercedes’ 2019 brake ducts for is not in breach of the technical regulations. A I B its 2020 RP20. But the case is subject to appeals from Instead, the illegality is in the design process, which E five teams on both sides of the argument, and the saga is a breach of sporting regulations and as such is subject D P looks set to drag out for a long time to come. to a one-time penalty. The stewards acknowledged that O Racing Point came under fire after basing the design Racing Point could not unlearn the information it had S of its 2020 car on the 2019 title-winning Mercedes gained from using the Mercedes brake ducts in 2019. W W10, prompting Renault to lodge a protest after the The verdict caused further outrage throughout the E N Styrian, Hungarian and British Grands Prix. The protest paddock, dragging in the majority of teams and triggering focused on the design of the RP20’s rear-brake ducts, a wave of appeals on both sides of the argument. which were found by the FIA stewards to have been Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer called principally designed by Mercedes and that Racing the ruling “a bit bewildering”, and said the stewards Point’s design approach was like “using tracing paper were “wrong” in their tracing-paper claim. “We have to copy a shape or drawing”. 886 unique drawings for these brake ducts, and if you Racing Point had always claimed that it used photos look at the regulations, the regulations say it’s got to of the Mercedes W10 for the concept of its car and be your design,” said Szafnauer. aimed to reverse-engineer the design, but this was “We designed the whole thing ourselves. The refuted by the stewards. stewards are saying, ‘Yes, but the start of your design “The reason that Renault has protested the RP20’s was looking at a Mercedes brake duct and starting with brake ducts is that Racing Point did not just photograph it’. But you have to remember, in 2019 they were not and reverse engineer those brake ducts from the listed parts. Once you learn something on a non-listed Mercedes W10,” the ruling read. “Instead, Mercedes had part, in 2019 it was legal, and you can’t unlearn that.” given Racing Point the CAD models and other data for Racing Point plans to appeal the ruling, but will be the Mercedes W10 brake ducts, and Racing Point used joined in the courtroom by McLaren, Renault, Ferrari that information to develop the RP20 brake duct.” and Williams, all of whom are set to lodge appeals in Racing Point used Mercedes brake ducts through pursuit of a harsher sanction. 2019, when they were a non-listed part and could “They claimed that they had copied the car via therefore be supplied by a rival team. But brake photography,” said McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. ducts are now a listed part for 2020. “It’s clear from reading the document that that’s BS, and The FIA stewards handed Racing Point a 15-point therefore you have to question anything else around PIT + PADDOCK Szafnauer and Stroll (pictured right) are fighting to uphold honour of Racing NO MORE Point amid row F1 CLONING, SAYS THE FIA FORMULA 1 Formula 1 plans to outlaw copycat designs from next year to prevent any more teams following Racing Point’s lead and cloning a rival’s concept. Stewards announced that they felt Racing Point had breached F1’s sporting regulations in using a rear-brake design that was not its own, and the FIA has revealed that further action is to be taken for next season. FIA single-seater head Nikolas Tombazis (below) said that the governing body and F1’s commercial rights holders have agreed that teams should no ALL PHOTOGRAPHY R longer be allowed to clone cars. A E B N N “We do plan with very O U D H short notice to introduce some amendments to the 2021 sporting regulations that will prevent this becoming the norm,” said Tombazis.