Racing Point CEO Otmar Szafnauer has revealed the huge difference in leadership under Lawrence Stroll compared to Vijay Mallya.
The Canadian entrepreneur, and father of Lance, bought the former Force India outfit in 2018, as the legal and financial troubles of Mallya ultimately saw driver Sergio Perez trigger an administration process.
Since then, under their new name, Racing Point has been rebuilding their operation at Silverstone with high hopes of a much-improved season in 2020.
And that is in no small part to Stroll’s close interest.
“The significant difference is Lawrence takes a much deeper interest into what’s going on in the team, more of understanding of all aspects of what we’re doing,” Szafnauer explained to FormulaRapida.
“Whereas Vijay took more of a hands-off, laissez-faire view of the team only from a big picture perspective.
“Vijay liked the racing very much so you saw him at all the races, but he used to spend, up until the last year or two, maybe four or five days in the factory a year where Lawrence will come two, three days a week.
“So, say, in a month Lawrence can be there eight to 10 days, whereas Vijay would be there five days a year.
“So that’s a significant difference.”
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Of course, much of that can be associated with the different aims of the two businessmen as Mallya used Force India to promote his own brands through F1, while Stroll has motorsport much more in his heart.
But given the success Force India had, finishing fourth in the Constructors’ standings twice in 2016 and 2017, let’s hope his input is a help, not a hindrance.