Renault expects the FIA to investigate the entire 2020 Racing Point car for possible regulation breaches should their initial protest be successful.

After last weekend's Styrian Grand Prix, the French manufacturer finally went ahead and questioned the legality of the RP20, which has officially been dubbed the 'Pink Mercedes' due to its likeness with last year's W10.

Their argument is Racing Point and Mercedes have broken the rules on the number of listed parts which teams are allowed to supply to each other, with executive director Marcin Budkowski making this bold claim.

“We actually believe Racing Point have received drawings and parts which have been used to build their car this year,” he told Sky Sports.

“We believe this is not right. If this is not the case then…we’ll see. I think it’s going to a matter of weeks for the FIA to investigate.”

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Currently, the main focus is on the front and rear brake ducts, which were impounded from Racing Point after the stewards deemed Renault's protest as admissible, and will now be compared to those used on last year's Mercedes.

And as for what will happen if the FIA deem them illegal, Budkowski, a former head of the technical department at the governing body, said...

“Well, we made our protest on the brake ducts and certainly if these brake ducts were adjudged to be in breach of the regulations they simply would have to race with different brake ducts, they would maybe even have to design their own.

“If the FIA finds that these brake ducts are designed by another team, then I would expect that they would then inspect the rest of the car,” he continued.

“The brake ducts are an essential performance differentiator of the car. People think maybe they are a little duct to cool the brakes but today they are an important aerodynamic performance element.

“They can also help control the temperature of the tyres so it is really an essential part of F1 nowadays as much as a front wing or a diffuser is.

“There are parts of the brake ducts which are internal geometries where you cannot see any pictures. It is therefore difficult to copy by definition of a picture.”

Racing Point CEO Otmar Szafnauer remains certain Renault's case will be dismissed, however, based on the grounds mentioned.

"There were rumours of a potential protest in Australia, so our expectations were that something would happen," he said.

"My reaction is we have to put together the evidence to show that we are completely legal, and we have three weeks to do that, and that's exactly what we are working on now.

"The process is bulletproof. We will provide all the evidence that was asked of us, and I think the outcome will be bulletproof as well, which is quite nice.

"There are things the camera can't see, especially the internal surfaces of a brake duct, for example, which we completely designed and developed ourselves.

"When you compare the two parts, the FIA will absolutely know that the brake ducts are unique, our IP, and are designed by us."