Wolff suggests copying dispute will be settled out of court

Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff does not expect Formula One’s copying scandal case to end up in the sport’s court even though three teams intially lodging appeals against a stewards’ verdict.

Wolff said on Friday that he thought the row surrounding the integrity of this season’s Racing Point cars – widely dubbed ‘pink Mercedes’ because of their close similarity to the 2019 champions’ machines – was just pit-lane intrigue. 

“I think this is part of the politics and F1,” he told Sky Sports F1. “It’s a little bit of pushing against Racing Point’s performance, which is really outstanding this season, but that’s not down to a brake duct.

“I think they’ve done a really good job and you can see how close they are to us. So I think this is a good group of people, that have run in previous years with a low budget, with a tight ship, and this is why they have just closed that gap, also to us.”

Renault complained that Racing Point was using brake ducts copied from the 2019 championship winning Mercedes car. Stewards on August 7 docked Racing Point 15 points and fined them.

Three teams – Ferrari, Renault and Racing Point – lodged formal appeals against the decision with the sport’s International Court of Appeal (ICA), but Renault this week said they were withdrawing their appeal.

“I think this is going to resolve all hopefully next week,” said Wolff. “I don’t expect this to go to the ICA.”