“That Would be a Success For Us” – Racing Point Boss on Aston Martin’s Aspirations

The Racing Point F1 team has gone through numerous transformations in the past few years. From the erstwhile Force India team, it became Racing Point, and in the following season it will be renamed Aston Martin F1.

As a result, team boss Otmar Szafnauer is practically swamped with work. Team owner Lawrence Stroll is also hard at work and his efforts facilitated the Aston Martin takeover. The Canadian billionaire is extremely ambitious and he set some lofty targets for the squad.

Before it went under, Racing Point was a genuine top 4 contender. The Stroll-led consortium is trying to help bring them back to that position. However, it will be hard to topple the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. To make matters even more difficult, the McLaren resurgence and the Renault threat is also keeping them on their toes. The good news is that they are well on their way to a decent position to fight.

How is Racing Point evolving?

Previously, Racing Point used an ageing facility that housed Jordan, Midland, Spyker and Force India. However, the consortium will help build a new factory in place of that. The bad news is that the coronavirus pandemic has slowed things down, else it would have been ready for next summer.

“It’s probably a three-year plan for us,” Szafnauer told Formula1.com. “The factory will take a couple of years, and hiring the right people takes a couple of years, and during that transition phase, you won’t be at a 100% at where you want to be until you get there, and then you have got to work together. So it’s a three-year plan, but every year we should be getting better, we should never take a step backwards.

“Our goal is to break into the top three in that time and be competitive at that level and have a chance at winning races and be regular podium finishers. Even if we’re not top three, say the top three become top four and we’re part of that, or even top five and someone else joins us, but we’re all competing at that level where the top three currently are, that would be a success for us.”