Racing Point is expecting to accelerate the rate of development with the RP19, thanks to their new financial foundation.
The Silverstone-based outfit is in the midst of planning their future direction under the ownership of Lawrence Stroll but made a very tentative start to 2019 as only Williams completed fewer laps in the first pre-season test this week.
There does appear to be a good reason for that, however, as technical director Andrew Green explained.
“The changes that we’re going to make for Melbourne are quite substantial, so it’s a challenge to be tuning a car now for something that we’re not going to get until Melbourne,” he said in Barcelona.
This is part of a new approach the former Force India outfit will be implementing which they hope brings them more in line with their midfield rivals.
“We’re now in a position where we can bring parts to the car on a regular basis and because the development [curve] is so steep, we will because we can’t afford not to,” Green noted.
“[Upgrades will come] maybe not every race, but at very short intervals. We can do that now, we can start to develop more in the same way our competition has been developing forever.”
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This change is much needed because it was revealed the RP19’s early development began before last summer’s takeover.
“We didn’t really know what was going to happen with the company,” the technical director admitted.
“We had to make some quite big decisions on what we were going to do because there was a chance that the team weren’t going to get the big cash injection and we were still going to have to try and get a car out with no money, so the chassis is still effectively last year’s chassis.
“We had to make some decisions to ensure it gave us the best possible chance to get a car here today, assuming that the big cash injection wasn’t going to happen but luckily it did.”
Finally, Green spoke about the process currently been undertaken at Racing Point as they adjust to the new financial reality.
“It’s taking time for the money to turn itself into infrastructure and then car performance, these things to take time, but it’s happening,” he said.
“It’s happening at the pace we want it to. We’re not going to expand too quickly, too fast, too soon.
“We’re going to carry on with the same mindset that we’ve had for the past few years, and when we grow, we’ll grow organically and get the right people who fit into the team.
“There are visible signs of change but the time it takes to start influencing the performance of the car, it’s going to take some time.”
