Racing Point is confident their “most competitive car” ever in Formula 1 will be suited to the revised 2020 schedule.
The Silverstone-based squad was one of the most notable performers in pre-season testing having caused a stir with their RP20 machine, which many dubbed a “Pink Mercedes”.
Such was the potential that their car showed, even Ferrari, who struggled back in February, identified Racing Point as a possible threat.
But while challenging the Scuderia is an unlikely prospect, CEO Otmar Szafnauer admits he’s eager to see what it can do.
“We’re definitely looking forward to seeing how competitive it is,” he told Motorsport.com.
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“I think the first few circuits should be OK for us, even Hungary, and Silverstone should be OK too. Then we’re back to Barcelona, and over the winter we looked pretty decent there.
“I think that schedule should bode well for us. So we’re very much looking forward to seeing how the car performs and what we can do at each one of those circuits to find the sweet spot and optimise the set-up.”
Certainly, Racing Point is expected to feature at the front of the midfield alongside the likes of McLaren.
And while that position wouldn’t be new for the team, who finished ‘best of the rest’ as Force India in 2016 and 2017, Szafnauer does believe this is the best car the team has made.
“I think this is the most competitive [car]. We’ve taken a decent step forward,” he claimed.
“There have been other times where we looked really, really competitive. I remember I think it was Adrian Sutil overtaking Michael Schumacher in a Mercedes going up the hill at Spa and there are races where we’ve [been] really, really quick – and [we] nearly won one at Spa [in 2009].
“As a general package, out of Barcelona, which is usually a good indicator of how well your aerodynamic team has done, this is probably the best that I have seen our aerodynamic team has produced, and the best we’ve been at Barcelona anyway.”
Racing Point will be hitting the track at Silverstone with their 2020 car for a filming day sometime this month, prior to the first race in Austria on July 3-5.