Racing Point reveal plans for £25m factory

Racing Point have revealed plans for a new factory to be built at the site of its existing Silverstone home. Since the team was inaugurated as Force India in 2008, it has been based at the Silverstone factory built in the early 1990s for the Jordan team.

According to Motorsport.com, planning permission is to be sought imminently with building work hoped to begin before the end of the year.

Low budgets and ramshackle facilities often flew in the face of Force India's achievements, but it is hoped that the investment of Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll can turn the new entity into an F1 force, with a new base seemingly central to that.

"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," Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer told Motorsport.com.

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"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."

Szafnauer confirmed that the new factory will enable Racing Point to bolster their staff numbers, but said the intention is not to build the kind of space-age facility owned by the likes of McLaren and Mercedes.

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

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