Renault's protests over Racing Point F1 brake ducts set for next week
Renault's protests over Racing Point's Formula 1 brake ducts are set to be heard next week, although the latter's technical director Andrew Green says there's no case to answer
The hearing is expected to take place at Silverstone in the gap between the two races, and will be held in a semi-virtual format.
Renault lodged its first protest after the Styrian GP, where the Racing Points finished sixth and seventh, and then submitted a second after the Hungarian GP, where Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez were fourth and seventh respectively.
The Enstone team is expected to submit a third protest after Sunday's British GP. All three will be bundled together and heard by a new panel of stewards.
The case revolves around Racing Point using a 2019 Mercedes brake duct design on its 2020 car; since last year the rules have changed and brake ducts are now listed parts, which means that teams are obliged to design their own.
Renault is adamant that a team cannot use a rival's 2019 design, and both parties have spent the last few weeks gathering evidence which has now been submitted to the FIA.
When asked by Autosport whether Racing Point had built a good defence, Green said: "We think it's very strong".
"We've been working on it the last couple of weeks. Some documents went to the FIA at the weekend, and then our defence went to the stewards a couple of days ago.
"The lawyers have been working on it intensely over the last week or so. We think that it should be dismissed.
"I think the regulations are quite clear, and we've made that case quite clear, how the regulations are.
"And we can see that we've done everything within the regulations. So we don't think there's a case to answer."
The FIA's head of single seater technical matters Nikolas Tombazis said recently that the governing body hadn't specifically inspected the brake ducts when it visited the Racing Point factory after Barcelona testing, but Green denies that was the case.
"The FIA received all the data from our brake ducts in the visit," he said. "And they did a comparison, the Racing Point brake ducts to the MGP brake ducts, on that day. And they commented on it, and it was discussed.
"He [Tombazis] wasn't at that factory visit, there were other of his colleagues, but it was discussed, and it was shown.
"So we weren't trying to hide the brake ducts, they're all part of the submission that we gave to the FIA.
"And they did comment on how similar they were to the Mercedes. And we commented on why they were so similar, because we purchased the brake ducts in 2019."
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