Funding has finally powered "special" Racing Point forward - Szafnauer

Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer believes the fact the team now has substantial financial support has enabled it to mix with the big teams in Formula 1.

Just two years ago, the team then known as Force India came close to falling into administration and potentially dropping out of F1 altogether prior to Lawrence Stroll and his group of investors stepping in to save the Silverstone-based marque.

Now it is pushing Mercedes in qualifying and targeting podiums, albeit based on a 'copying' design philosophy of the German manufacturer's 2019 W10 that has angered its rivals and led to a protest from Renault.

Szafnauer insists the talent has always been there, but the money to pursue the ideas generated has not.

"The thing that's special about us is that we've always had a talented bunch of individuals that were really held back by a lack of funding," said Szafnauer.

"We've been wanting to do this kind of thing for a long time but really never had the money to follow the best teams in Formula 1."

Explaining other major design ideas the team has copied in the past, Szafnauer added: "If you remember we were the first to put a double diffuser on our car in 2009 when the three teams [Brawn, Toyota and Williams] came out with that.

"So we've always had talented individuals that understand racing, understand how to develop the car, and also, we are fast followers in looking to see what's out there and then adapting it ourselves.

"If you remember the f-duct McLaren came out with, we were the first to implement the f-duct after McLaren.

"So if you look back on our history, we've been able to do it with the talented individuals that we have, but later on in our history, we just didn't have the money."

Notably, in 2015 on the VJM08, then Force India introduced a B-spec car for the British Grand Prix that transformed its season as it featured a distinctive short-nose front-wing with two vents.

"We took a huge step forward," said Szafnauer. "That was only because over the winter we had those developments but we didn't have the money to put them on the car. We had a hybrid of the previous year's car and that year's car.

"Well, those days are gone because we're funded well which allows us to show the talent we have and to do what we've done."

Before you go...

Red Bull investigating RB16 "anomalies" in bid to close "significant gap" to Mercedes

Chinese GP off; Nürburgring, Malaysia in talks; Spain on

Related

Formula 1

F1 reveals viewing figure drop for European based 2020 season

• February 8, 2021 11:45

Aston Martin

Stroll laments missed podium opportunities

• January 22, 2021 14:58