Racing Point tracking Schumacher, Latifi progress

Jamie Woodhouse
Mick-Schumacher-celebrates-PA

Racing Point CEO Otmar Szafnauer admits they are one of the teams tracking the progress of Mick Schumacher, while Nicholas Latifi is also on their radar.

Sergio Perez signed a new three-year deal earlier in the year to remain with the team, while Lance Stroll, son of owner Lawrence Stroll continues in the second seat from 2020 and beyond.

But Racing Point continue to scout the market for possible future stars – Schumacher, a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, is someone they continue to monitor, while Latifi who currently serves as Williams’ reserve driver, is also on their mind after serving as Force India’s test driver in 2018.

“We have quite a few drivers in mind,” Szafnauer told Speedweek.com.

“We look at how they beat each other in the junior series. We even wrote an analysis program in which we record all the results. Well, that does not allow a perfect judgment, but it’s a guide.

“Everyone in the Formula 1 is watching attentively what Mick Schumacher is doing.

“There are some pretty good guys. We also had Nicholas Latifi in our car.”

Stroll is still only 21 years of age, and Szafnauer is happy with his development, but admits that tyre management is an area for improvement.

“Lance Stroll is a smart guy, still very young. His starts really are a show,” he explained.

“But he is still learning, especially in tyre management. He had bad luck a few times. He usually starts well, as I said, but then two opponents get in front of him and he runs out of pace.”

Racing Point caused a stir back at the Japanese Grand Prix when their appeal against Renault’s automatically adjusting brake bias system got the French manufacturer disqualified from the results in Suzuka.

But, Szafnauer is still adamant that his team were right to flag it up, saying Renault were “tricking” F1 and that’s not “alright”.

“No, I have a good conscience,” he said when asked if he felt like the bad guy in the situation.

“Renault tricked everyone with this unauthorised driving aid, that just was not alright.”

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