Racing Point is aiming to jump to the front of the midfield with another upgrade at the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Silverstone-based outfit has spent the past two months revamping their 2019 car which was initially under-developed at the start of the season due to events surrounding their change in ownership last summer.
Competitiveness has improved, with Racing Point fighting for the lower positions in the points, and their traditional strength on low downforce circuits also returned with Sergio Perez scoring strongly at Spa and Monza.
“We expected to be good at Spa, which happened and we expected to be good in Italy,” team boss Otmar Szafnauer admitted. “We also expect to be pretty good at Singapore because we’ve got some tricks up our sleeves.”
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Those expectations are increasing confidence within Racing Point that they can return to their 2016/17 role of being the top midfield team on the grid.
“We have definitely made some progress, so I’m encouraged to get the targets done for the rest of the year,” Perez added.
“I want to make sure we finish the season with the fourth-best car on the grid, regularly across different circuits, that would be a good finish.
“I think a step of three tenths on top of what we have is what we need to be regularly the fourth-fastest team. We are close, but obviously three tenths [even] considering [if] no one is improving is quite a lot.”
The Mexican’s boss agreed with the ambitions of his newly re-signed driver.
“Yes. I think that is realistic and that is what we are targeting,” Szafnauer stated. “We will bring further elements of our new aero philosophy in Singapore before we shift all our resources to the 2020 car.
“We’re only 11 points away from fifth place, for example, so there’s everything to play for with eight races to go.”