Racing Point still believe they can reel in McLaren and finish 'best of the rest' in this year's Constructors' standings.

The Silverstone-based outfit has been playing catch up for most of the year with their car largely underdeveloped compared to many of their midfield rivals.

However, after introducing a raft of upgrades over the German and Hungarian GP's, the hope is that with traditionally strong circuits at Spa and Monza to come, their rate of progress will pick up after the summer break.

"We’ll get there," team boss Otmar Szafnauer told Reuters referring to the top midfield place they held for two straight years.

"We have the same people, the same process, even better tools and more funding so it’s just a matter of time.

"The second half of the season should be a lot closer to where we’ve been in the past. Renault had better watch out."

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Just eight points separate Racing Point from the French manufacturer while 51 is the deficit to McLaren, who currently appear to have P4 firmly in their grasp.

However: "I still think it's possible but it’s difficult," Szafnauer said on whether they could be caught.

"Not because we’re that far away, but because the competition in the midfield is really intense and we’re really only fighting for a few points or tenths.

"If the top three teams do what they should do, the top six (race) positions are gone. You’re only fighting for a handful of points and there’s a lot of us in that midfield that could get that handful."

It was exactly 12 months ago that the former Force India outfit became Racing Point after Lawrence Stroll's takeover from Vijay Mallya.

But the impact of that period is still being felt.

"We took such a hit last year because of the difficulties that we had," the team boss and CEO explained.

"We were on the back foot because when we were making decisions back in May and June (2018) about this year’s car, we had no money.

"So we compromised this year’s car and I didn’t really understand the impact of those compromises until this year.

"Now we’re trying to unravel some of those things because we do have funding that we can spend on performance, which is what we’re chasing now."