Racing Point: “Seismic” investment ramps up expectations

Racing Point’s technical director Andrew Green says the overhaul investment in the team is “something special” but means its targets ramp up as it hunts regular podiums in its new era.

Midway through 2018 the Silverstone-based squad was taken over by a Lawrence Stroll-led consortium to signal the start of a new team, Sport Pesa Racing Point F1 Team, with fresh investment in both personnel and infrastructure while it retains its familiar pink livery.

At its 2019 team launch in Toronto, technical boss Green says the team can continue developing its new car, the RP19, throughout a season rather than previously dividing up its development time due to funding limitations.

“It is not a new chapter, it is a new book in this team now,” Green said. “This is something special which we are excited about. It is a seismic change.

“With it comes the expectations which we are eager to prove that we can do more. I think that is what we are about to prove. In the coming months you’ll see the team grown, develop and the performance of the car will increase at quite a dramatic rate.

“We’ve been working really hard over the winter and there has been some significant rule changes brought it to try to aid overtaking, that has pegged the cars back significantly and we’ve been working over the winter trying to claw back that performance.

“We won’t really know until we hit the grid in Melbourne but from there it doesn’t stop, the development of the car throughout the season is going to be significant.

“With the new investment in the team it allows us to develop a car through a season, something we’ve never been able to do before, that’s already started.”

But with fewer limitations, Green accepts better results will be required in 2019 despite continually outperforming its own expectations under its previous Force India guise.

“We’ve just ramped up our expectations so that brings even more pressure on ourselves but we want it,” he said. This is what the team wants to do, we want to go racing and we want to be the team who beats people that we shouldn’t.

“We want to get on those podiums more often and we think we can do that now as we’ve been given the opportunity and we are grasping it with both hands.”

Racing Point welcomes Lance Stroll into its driver line-up alongside Sergio Perez, who sticks with the squad for a sixth consecutive season, ahead of the 2019 F1 season.