Rumblings of a Melbourne protest against Racing Point’s ’pink Mercedes’ are circulating in the Barcelona test paddock.
Bigger teams like McLaren and Renault are coming to terms with the fact that they have been leapfrogged as ’best of the rest’ by a car that is visually almost identical to the Mercedes.
Some suspect the front wing in particular is a one-for-one copy.
"No one would be so stupid as to build a true copy of the original for the ’listed parts’, Renault director Marcin Budkowski told Auto Motor und Sport.
"If you take something from another team, you can easily change it."
Racing Point’s technical boss Andy Green said he is confused as to why the team’s 2020 contender is suddenly so controversial.
"We only bought a third of the parts from Mercedes that we would have been able to buy," he said. "Haas buys everything the regulations allow from Ferrari."