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Q&A with Szafnauer and Green

NEWS STORY
13/02/2019

Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer and technical boss Andrew Green look ahead to 2019, the team's first full season.

Otmar, the start of the new season is a few weeks away - share your emotions and excitement for 2019...
Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal & CEO: The winter months have disappeared incredibly quickly and it's hugely exciting to be on the verge of seeing the new car take to the track for the first time. Even after more than twenty years in the sport, I still feel the same buzz when the car is fired up in the factory and heads off to the first test. We've worked incredibly hard back at base to push as much performance to the car as possible and really maximised the new aero regulations. I'm proud of the team and I think we will start the season with a competitive package, but we won't really know where we stand until we get to Melbourne.

How different has this winter been compared to previous years?
OS: There is a huge amount going on behind the scenes and I would say it has been the busiest winter I can remember. Not only are we delivering the new car, but we are also planning for the future and trying to improve our facilities and tools following years of underinvestment. We are expanding the current factory to accommodate a growing workforce and simultaneously planning the build of a new facility, which will also be located in Silverstone. These are not easy tasks and they require lots of energy and resources to deliver. But we are well aware that the focus of our key people needs to remain on the performance of the car and that's very much the case.

The team has a new name - SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team - tell us more about the new identity...
OS: Racing Point was the name that we introduced at last year's Belgian Grand Prix and we felt it was appropriate to continue with this identity. We are a bunch of racers with a singular focus and this name captures those core values. We have brought in SportPesa as a title partner to sit alongside our principal sponsor BWT, who continue to give us our striking pink colour scheme and strong identity. As such, we are now SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team.

What targets have been set for this new era?
OS: The long term aim is to take this team to the very top of the sport. In the short and medium term we need to take the fight to the top three teams and establish our position as a podium contender. This won't happen overnight and the new owners are realistic about the amount of work needed to get us to that level. We are putting the building blocks in place to deliver on these ambitious targets and it's important that we take a good step forward in 2019. We want to be fighting for podiums on merit this year and aiming for a top four finish in the championship.

What about the off-track ambitions?
OS: The aspirations off-track are just as ambitious. The new shareholders are investing in all areas of the company to establish Racing Point as a premium brand with strong commercial appeal. We have already signed an exciting new partnership with SportPesa, which sits alongside the BWT relationship as our top level partners. We've also welcomed new names such as JCB, Bombardier and Hackett into the Racing Point family - brands which share our vision for building a first-class racing team. There is also the creation of a new factory, which we expect to be completed by 2021, and the introduction of a new motorhome at European events later this year.

How has the workforce reacted to the new era and how is team morale?
OS: When the shareholders acquired the team they made a point of saying that they were investing in the people rather than the buildings. They understood that the people we have working for us represent our strongest asset and I am pleased to say that even during the period of transition we only lost a couple of staff. The loyalty of the workforce shows how much people believe in this company and they all want to be part of this exciting new chapter. These are the people that helped Force India deliver fourth place finishes in 2016 and 2017 operating on lean budgets. They share our collective racers' philosophy. There will be changes and evolution, of course, with greater resources becoming available, but it's important that we retain this racers' culture and efficiency as much as possible.

How do you see Lance and Sergio working together this season?
OS: Our line-up is a blend of youth and experience. We know Sergio very well after five years working together and we regard him as one of the best racers on the grid. He's an ideal benchmark and teammate as we begin working with Lance and there's also the opportunity for Lance to learn from Sergio's experience. We did one test with Lance in Abu Dhabi last year, which went really well, and since then he has been at the factory every week spending time on the simulator. He's working well with the engineers already, asking all the right questions and is settling in nicely to a new environment. I think our drivers will bring out the best in each other. They are both hugely motivated for the new season and we will work hard to give them a car that matches their talents.

Andrew, the 2019 season is here and, with it, a new car. How did it come to life and how much does it share with the 2018 one?
Andrew Green, Technical Director: The design and build process for the RP19 has generally been an improvement compared to previous years, which is a positive result of the change in team ownership. We are already looking beyond our testing-spec car, actually: we're planning what to bring to the first race, what to bring to round five in Barcelona and what we should be looking at as we develop this package, something we've been unable to do previously.

The new car uses certain parts and assemblies from last year's car and the 2018 chassis has been modified to suit, so it needed to be re-homologated. This was one of the big decisions we had to take early on, back in July when the team's future was still uncertain. We had to find the most cost-effective way to keep development running throughout last year and decisions were made to use as much of the 2018 car as we possibly could. What we had to avoid was stopping development for two months while we waited to understand what the future held, as that would have been a significant blow to our 2019 competitiveness. Looking back, we know it was a good call.

What the team went through in 2018 has been a major story, of course, but how much of an impact did it have on the way you approached this project?
AG: The change of ownership definitely affected the decisions we made last year. It came a few months too late to affect the fundamental philosophy of the 2019 car, so we set out to work in the same way we had done before, when the finances of the team were very lean. In reality we couldn't expect a big inflow of cash until September, so we made certain decisions about the chassis and gearbox that allowed us to keep developing. Whilst all this was happening we carried on adding some performance to the 2018 car by developing the parts we had. Often the upgrades never made it past the wind tunnel model but we had to keep car development progressing at all times, otherwise we'd just fall further behind. It was the only way to work given the situation we were in.

Now the lean times are over and the team has found a new stability - how will this change the way you work?
AG: It's been a massive change, and one for the best, with a real change in development philosophy. This year, we will be bringing updates to the car as soon as they're ready. We won't be waiting to put together bigger packages, but will focus on making incremental gains at every race. The improved financial situation of the team helps this strategy a lot, but this situation owes a lot to the change in regulations as well. A new set of aero rules means the development slope has become steep again. The gains are not going to taper off into marginal increases this year, we are in a situation in which we find significant performance at regular intervals. The model is developing at such a fast pace we cannot afford not to bring parts to the car as soon as we can.

You mentioned the new regulation changes. How crucial are they and will they result in the field being spread out or closer?
AG: The 2019 regulation changes are significant. The modifications to the front wing alone have had a big impact, as they affect the aerodynamic performance of the whole car: when changes are made to something at the front, everything downstream is affected. There are also significant new regulations for the front brake ducts and the rear wing as well, so overall the 2019 car has required a lot of optimisation and re-design work. Ultimately we may struggle to find out if these new rules improve the racing and unfortunately I don't think they will help close the grid up, but what we know from looking at our data is that they produce a significant loss of performance, one we are still fighting to recover.

Winter testing starts next week - the first time we'll see the RP19 on track. What can we expect from these two weeks?
AG: Expect quite a plain, 'vanilla' car to start with as we produced what we believe is a car capable of delivering what we need to achieve in Barcelona - working on reliability and understanding the tyres. Of course, it's incredibly difficult to extract good performance data from Barcelona in the winter, but it's the same for everyone. We did what we needed to get the car out for launch, but in the background we have always been working on the car for the first race, trying to find the maximum performance we can and bring to Melbourne.

Will we see a much different car in Australia, then?
AG: Yes, we are planning to update the car for the first race and probably the two or three races after that. They'll be fairly significant changes ahead of another big step forward in Barcelona, in race five. Hopefully, by the time we get to Europe we will have a decent platform to be working with and developing.

Of course, the changes don't stop with the car. There's a new driver line-up, too...
AG: It's a really exciting time for the team. We have always taken great pride in the way we can bring the best out of a driver in the cockpit. We have done that with several drivers in the past and we are looking forward to doing the same with Lance. We have seen his potential, right from the first day he tested with us in Abu Dhabi and every time he runs in the simulator. The raw talent is there, there is no doubt about that. To be able to have Sergio as a sounding board and as a reference point is just so important. He brings so much experience and knowledge to the table, he has worked closely with the team for so many years - he understands us and we understand him. I expect Lance to get up to speed very quickly. He is not a rookie but he is still very young, so he has a lot to learn and we have a lot to teach him - and so has Checo. I don't think it's going to be long before the two are fighting it out for the same spot on the grid, just like it was in the last season with Esteban!

Finally, how much are you looking forward to seeing the car on track?
AG: I can't wait! We all want to start understanding the various aspects of the car's performance; understanding all the mechanical and aerodynamic aspects of the car, our new power unit and make sure our reliability is sound. It's a matter of putting in the miles and understanding the tyres as much as we can... and then looking forward to an updated car in Melbourne.

It's going to be a big challenge for everyone but we are all very much up for it. We have been doing a significant amount of preparation in the pre-season, the biggest we have ever done. The simulator programme is the most extensive we've ever achieved, a 100% expansion on where we were last year. There has been a huge investment in this area, but the tool now is capable of delivering results. We have spent many years developing this area of the team and now it's bringing performance.

There's always a certain degree of apprehension at this time: wondering how good a job we've done, and wondering how good the others have been. We want to see how we measure against the competition because so far we've have only measured ourselves against our own targets. It's also interesting to see what designs the other teams have come up with and how they solved the problems the new rules have brought.

This year will be a challenge, with new rules and a new driver line-up, but that's what we do. It's what drives and motivate us. No matter how exhausted you are after Abu Dhabi, within a month of being back at HQ you miss the racing and just want to get back to running the car. This year, I can't wait to get started. We have a brand new identity, so much is new and there's a real sense of excitement within the team.

It's not even a new chapter, it's a new book. It's the most exciting time for the team and the vision the shareholders have for the company is incredible. I can't wait.

Check out our Racing Point livery reveal gallery, here.

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