2019 Sport Pesa Racing Point F1 Team - Mercedes

[Morteza]

Racing Point unveils plans for £25m F1 factory at Silverstone site

The plan is to have construction complete in time for the 2021 Formula 1 season. The images were exclusively revealed in this month's F1 Racing magazine, which goes on sale on Thursday April 4.

"This is a new chapter, the dawn of a new era and there is huge energy from the shareholders to invest and help the team become a regular podium contender in the future," said Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

"The team has never been more stable or in better hands and this project aims to attract and retain the best staff in Formula 1."

Racing Point's current factory is based opposite the gates to the Silverstone grand prix circuit, covering an area of three acres.

It was originally built for the Jordan squad's Formula 1 debut in 1991 and has housed the various iterations of the team since then, including Midland, Spyker and Force India.

But the factory has long been outgrown by the staffing levels required for a modern F1 organisation and is in critical need of redevelopment.

Over the past decade, the team's headcount has grown substantially. Last August, when Racing Point took over, staffing levels had increased to 405 from the 280 in 2009.

Since then the team has added another 20 employees and plans to expand by an additional 180 over the next two years as it seeks an ambitious push in performance.

When the consortium, headed up by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, took over Force India in the summer, one of the priorities was to look at developing the Dadford Road base.

Since then a deal has been struck to purchase the land around the site to increase the size of the Racing Point HQ ten-fold, to 30 acres.

There is a two-stage redevelopment of their site, with the first phase already underway. At present an overspill of 125 employees are based at a second location in Brackley, but they are being moved into Dadford Road with rented Portakabins housing staff in the car parks around the factory.

Warehouse space is also being rented for the team's simulator and race operations room in the industrial units close to its current base.

The team's philosophy has been to outsource much of the construction of its chassis, but the plan for the new facility is to create a manufacturing centre of excellence to bring car build in-house.

The ratio of personnel employed between the design office and manufacturing will be determined by the make-up of the 2021 regulations - which have yet to be finalised by the sport's governing body.

"Our new facility will be able to house the expansion we have planned of increasing staffing levels to around 600," Szafnauer told F1 Racing.

"We need everyone under one roof, we want to expand our manufacturing output, create a nice canteen, some office space, meeting rooms and a gym for our employees - everything we don't have at the moment.

"But we don't plan for it to be too opulent. We still need to retain our DNA and our racer's ethos, so it will be purpose-built for performance."

The plans to upgrade the factory to a new state-of-the-art, sustainable building is an indication of Stroll's long-term commitment to F1 and a boost to the Motorsport Valley economy around Silverstone and in the UK - particularly in the uncertain political landscape.

Our sister website Motorsport Jobs has a list of the current vacancies available at the Racing Point team.

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Who built their chassis? McLaren?

I don't know honestly. The thing I know is they have been using Mercedes gearboxes.

[Raleigh]

Codem Composites do the carbon fiber work for Force India/Racing Point.

https://www.codemcomposites.com/

Not a Haas-like situation were Dallara supplies the complete car, Force India outsourced their composite work because it's more cost efficient than maintaining facilities inhouse. Which said, the new facilities will improve lead time.

[multisync]

If we remember a few Christmases ago FI were late with their car because they would not release the chassis due to non payment.

[zeph]

If Stroll sr. is in part responsible for the new facility, it shows true commitment. I can't help but wonder if his commitment would waver if his son turns out unable to beat Perez?

[makecry]

If Stroll sr. is in part responsible for the new facility, it shows true commitment. I can't help but wonder if his commitment would waver if his son turns out unable to beat Perez?

Why would he not be responsible for the new facility? He is the one who is leading a group of investors who has bought the team.

[zeph]

Exactly. So I wonder what would happen if his son is unable to beat Perez. Would he keep him as a driver, or sack him and continue as an investor alone, or retire from F1 altogether?

[bill shoe]

Many things I could say about Stroll but won’t. Overall Racing Point are doing Ok but they are a modestly funded and independent midfield team. Every point is both difficult and precious. Perez is a highly effective machine who always brings home equal or better points than can be expected from raw car pace. The team will not actively handicap Perez or fire him. Stroll’s lower ability to score points precisely protects Perez.

[sprint car76]

Perez made a demon start and got 4 places in that first lap. In many of the races this year it seems where you get to in the first lap is where you will finish unless someone has a better pit strategy.

[Nflux]

Is it possible to get Ocon back and let Stroll be the third driver? We are not that far from fourth in the Constructors Championship.

[NAPI10]

Is it possible to get Ocon back and let Stroll be the third driver? We are not that far from fourth in the Constructors Championship.

That will be highly unusual.
I don’t expect Lance to outshine Sergio but he needs some time to settle & deliver decent result.

[McMika98]

Perez made a demon start and got 4 places in that first lap. In many of the races this year it seems where you get to in the first lap is where you will finish unless someone has a better pit strategy.

Starting p11 and p12 with fresh tyres seems to have a massive advantage. P9 and P10 are the worst place to qualify as you have to also pit earlier to replace used tyres.

[sprint car76]

Really good race for the pink boys. Both drivers in the points and big upgrade for next race.

[zeph]

Stroll needs to up his quali game. He’s not bad in the race, but he hasn’t gotten out of Q1 this season, while Perez shows it is entirely possible.

[Nflux]

Will he ever get out of Q1?

[sprint car76]

Will robert kubica ever beat russell, will gasly ever come close to verstappen? Why this fixation on stroll? Yes he has a problem with qualifying, but he was closer this race. The updates obviously did not work with both drivers not having a good race. If you look at the lap times during the race they were evenly matched but going nowhere.

Some posters seem to like taking shots at stroll while ignoring that there are other drivers struggling.If ocon is such a star why has merc not given him any testing time in both tests so far?

His dad is no dummy and is going to whats best for the team. No he is not going to favor his son. He didn't make his money by making dumb decisions. Right now racing point has much bigger problems than it's drivers.