The ‘risk’ Lawrence Stroll told his engineers to take that earned Sergio Perez his first F1 win

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The 2020 season was controversial, not least because of the disruptions thrown up by COVID-19 and the possibility that Formula 1 might not be able to restart.

Pre-season testing had already taken place before the pandemic gripped the world and teams had unveiled their challengers for the year, but heads turned to one team on the grid.

Racing Point was entering his third year under the new ownership of billionaire Canadian Lawrence Stroll, and the design brief was fairly simple: copy Mercedes. The team already shared resources with the Silver Arrows, including using their wind tunnel before Aston Martin built their modern facility in 2023.

Now they turned up to the 2020 test with the RP20 which bore a close resemblance to the Mercedes W10, earning it the ‘Pink Mercedes’ or ‘Tracing Point’ moniker. It was a gamble from Racing Point, but it would pay off later in the season when it delivered Sergio Perez his first race win in F1 and kickstarted his Red Bull career.

Otmar Szafnauer explains ‘risk’ Racing Point made with RP20

While the design caused controversy among the teams, Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer believed the switch in design concept was justified after they reached the peak performance of their previous design.

“It doesn’t bother me. We’ve been talking about doing this for many years, we’ve had a Mercedes gearbox in the back of our cars and because they run a different aero package than us it was always a compromise,” Szafnauer told F1.com.

“So we ran a high rake with a gearbox that was designed for a car with no high rake, and there was always compromises at the rear end that meant we had rear end instability.”

Racing Point had struggled to stay afloat before Stroll’s takeover, with Szafnauer himself recently revealing that he had to pay the salaries of team members out of his own pocket.

The investment from Stroll enabled them to pursue a successful car concept, although it still came with caveats.

“Because of where we are now financially, that meant we had the opportunity to switch concepts because it takes quite a bit of effort and resources to do that. This was our opportunity to do that. The sad thing is, it will only be for one year,” said Szafnauer.

“It was a risk because, the other concept we understood quite well and we’ve refined it over nine years. So it was a bit of a step into the unknown.”

Renault lodges protest against legality of Racing Point RP20

Technical director Andrew Green claimed the car “shared some resemblances in some areas” but denied there was a transfer of knowledge between the teams.

It would later become the subject of a protest from Renault, who suggested that the team’s brake ducts were too similar to the Mercedes W10. When the brake ducts were impounded by the FIA, the stewards requested Mercedes provide brake ducts from the W10 for comparison.

Renault would go on to protest the results at the Hungarian and British Grands Prix, before Ferrari also joined in an submitted clarification from the governing body. The FIA would go on to uphold the protests and fine Racing Point £318,000 and deducted 15 points from the Constructors’ Championship.

While the car complied with the technical regulations, the design process of the rear brake ducts breached the sporting regulations because Racing Point had based the design on part of the CAD drawings supplied by Mercedes. As a result, the FIA viewed Mercedes as the original designer.

Sergio Perez takes first race win at Sakhir Grand Prix

Despite the setback, Racing Point would go on to achieve their first win as a Constructor at the end of the season with the help of Perez. The Mexican qualified in fifth place, but was caught up in a first-lap incident with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.

Having pitted for repairs, Perez found himself at the back of the grid and facing a comeback drive into the points. After working his way through the field, Perez found himself in the top five when a Safety Car was deployed for Jack Aitkin, who was racing at Williams for George Russell.

READ MORE: Best moments of Sergio Perez’s F1 career including first pole, podium, win and more

Russell was making his debut for Mercedes, after Hamilton contracted COVID and was forced to miss the penultimate race. Russell had been leading but a mix-up between the Mercedes pit wall and mechanics forced him to pit twice for new tyres after they fitted Bottas’ by mistake.

Perez eventually took the lead after the pit stops, and was having to defend from Esteban Ocon in the Renault. After nearly 10 laps, Perez managed to cruise home and take his first win in F1 and the first win for the Silverstone-based Racing Point since it was under the Jordan Grand Prix guise in 2003.

It would go on to set Perez up for his drive at Red Bull, which ultimately came to an end in 2024, while Racing Point just missed out on third in the Constructors’ Championship in 2020 to McLaren due to the impact of the points deduction.