Big upgrades, new factory the plan for Racing Point

Editor
Big upgrades, new factory the plan for Racing Point

The new Racing Point investors have wasted little time in splashing the cash as they try to establish the team as a “premium brand”.

As part of a packed 2019 launch schedule on Wednesday, Racing Point revealed their 2019 look which has some influence from a new title sponsor in the form of SportPesa.

Drivers Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll want to get the team straight back into the midfield dogfight this season, but plenty of work is going on behind the scenes to bring the team up to speed with the rest.

To help do that, a new Silverstone factory is in the works.

“The new shareholders are investing in all areas of the company to establish Racing Point as a premium brand with strong commercial appeal,” said team principal Otmar Szafnauer at the launch event in Toronto, Canada.

“We have already signed an exciting new partnership with SportPesa, which sits alongside the BWT relationship as our top level partners.

“We’ve also welcomed new names such as JCB, Bombardier and Hackett into the Racing Point family – brands which share our vision for building a first-class racing team.

“There is also the creation of a new factory, which we expect to be completed by 2021, and the introduction of a new motorhome at European events later this year.

Szafnauer also said the team’s ambitions can now become more of a reality after “years of underinvestment”.

“There is a huge amount going on behind the scenes and I would say it has been the busiest winter I can remember,” he added.

“Not only are we delivering the new car, but we are also planning for the future and trying to improve our facilities and tools following years of underinvestment.

“We are expanding the current factory to accommodate a growing workforce and simultaneously planning the build of a new facility, which will also be located in Silverstone.

“These are not easy tasks and they require lots of energy and resources to deliver. But we are well aware that the focus of our key people needs to remain on the performance of the car and that’s very much the case.”

Technical director, Andrew Green, also revealed a progressive development plan for 2019, with cash flow issues now set to be a thing of the past.

He said: “Expect quite a plain, ‘vanilla’ car to start with as we produced what we believe is a car capable of delivering what we need to achieve in Barcelona – working on reliability and understanding the tyres.

“We did what we needed to get the car out for launch, but in the background we have always been working on the car for the first race, trying to find the maximum performance we can and bring to Melbourne.

“We are planning to update the car for the first race and probably the two or three races after that.

“They’ll be fairly significant changes ahead of another big step forward in Barcelona, in race five.

“Hopefully, by the time we get to Europe we will have a decent platform to be working with and developing.

“This year, we will be bringing updates to the car as soon as they’re ready.

“We won’t be waiting to put together bigger packages, but will focus on making incremental gains at every race.”

Follow us on Twitter @Planet_F1 and like our Facebook page.