Sergio Perez has defended his Racing Point team following confirmation rivals Renault F1 have lodgeඣd a protest against its car over its evident similarities to the 2019 title-winning Mercedes W10 car.

Dubbed the ‘pink Mercedes’, the Racing Point RP20 garnered a🎀 lot of attention over the winter for its striking similarity to the 2019-spec Mercedes W10 from its lithe shape, down to its unusually shaped nose cone.

With its Mercedes-sourced power unit and gearbox, the similar aerodynamics – which Racing Point insist have been based on its visual interpretation of the W10 – have raised concerns it now errs too closely to a direct customer car, which isn’t permitted in the regulati♓ons.

As such, ౠRenault is taking its complaint to the governing body, though have previously said it predominately seeks clarity moving forward.

However, when asked by mahbx.com for a reaction to the protest, Perez says it doesn’t deserve to discredit the work done by the Racing Point crew to su🍸rvive financial difficulties to emerge with a truly competitive car.

Whether it looks similar or not to the M🐻ercedes, we cannot hide away that it looks similar to the Mercedes car bu🌃t the most important thing for me is that we don’t take any praise off the boys back home, we have done extremely well with minimal resources.

“Things over the year💃s have been 🦩extremely challenging for our team, with all the difficulties with the financial issues and so on.

“We always knew there was a poten🍎tial in placd but we were not able to exploit is. So I want to give praise to all the factory, all the people working back home and trackside, they have done a tremendous job and I believe our car is 100% legal.”