Racing Point F1 Team

Based in: Silverstone, UK Founded: 7 August 2018 (active 1 September 2018 - 2020) Website: http://www.racingpoint.com/ Owner: Lawrence Stroll CEO: Otmar Szafnauer Technical director: Andrew Green Sporting director: Andy Stevenson Commercial director: Steve Curnow

Racing Point UK Limited is essentially the continuation of the Force India F1 Team. The latter team, which had been founded by Indian Vijay Mallya had become in dire financial waters and was put under administration on 28 July 2018. Rumours had been abound for a while, but the team ended up in this situation when their own driver, Serio Pérez started a court case against his team, in an attempt to keep it racing while finding a solution.

On 7 August 2018, the team was taken over by a consortium, led by Canadian Lawrence Stroll. Assets of the team were taken over, but not the team itself. This created a situation where Force India was excluded from the championship, and its points erased, while the new team had to re-apply to compete in F1.

Following admittance, the team completed the remaining 9 races of the season as Racing Point Force India F1 - running the Force India VJM11. In the Belgian Grand Prix, their first race, they immediately scored the best result of the season, with Pérez finishing 5th and Ocon 6th.

Come 2019, the team competed at "SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team" and was then commonly known as "Racing Point". On the drivers' front, Lance Stroll, son of part owner Lawrence Stroll left Williams and joined Racing Point to drive alongside Sergio Pérez for the next two years.

After a 2019 season with mixed fortunes, the team saw another name change as SportPesa ended their sponsorship deal, resulting in "BWT Racing Point F1 Team", named after BWT, the Austrian water company that was sponsoring the team for several years already. Over the winter period, the team went for a much-contested design strategy of copying as much from the championship-winning Mercedes AMG F1 W10 as possible. As such, the Racing Point RP20 became known as the "pink Mercedes" by "tracing point".

It went further than copying however. Following the Styrian Grand Prix, Renault F1 Team filed a formal protest against the RP20's brake ducts. These must be designed by the team itself, but after impounding them, and comparing them with those of the W10, the FIA fined the team and deducted points in the Constructors' Championship.

Racing Point enjoyed a successful 2020 in which it scored points at all but one Grand Prix. Sergio Pérez won the Sakhir Grand Prix and finished second in the Italian Grand Prix while Lance Stroll finished third twice.

As Lawrence Stroll subsequently bought a stake in car maker Aston Martin, the team rebranded to Aston Martin before the 2021 season.

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