SportPesa Racing Point target the top despite underfunded 2019

SportPesa Racing Point owner Lawrence Stroll says the team's ambitions to reach the very top of Formula 1 are undimmed, despite admitting that their 2019 challenge has begun on underfunded foundations. Racing Point top a tightly packed group of teams in fifth place of the constructors' standings after six races.

Under the team's previous guise of Force India, fourth-place finishes in the championship were secured in 2016 and 2017 despite suffering with numerous financial struggles, which ultimately saw the team put in administration last year and saved by a consortium headed by Canadian billionaire Stroll.

That takeover came too late to see Racing Point make an immediate jump in 2019, although it is hoped that upgrades throughout the season will help Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll push for greater rewards.

"First we wanted to restore financial stability and give the engineers the means to develop the car," Stroll Snr told La Presse.

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"For now, we want to keep fighting in the middle of the pack, aiming for fourth place in the constructors' standings.

"In the longer term, the goal is to become one of the best teams in the paddock and aim for victory.

"The team certainly did not have all the funds necessary to prepare the car this year, so we knew that the first races would be difficult.

"But we will try to make changes faster than the other teams. Maybe not as fast as the big teams, but as fast as we can."

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