Racing Point warning - our best is yet to come

Racing Point

Racing Point warning - our best is yet to come

The team still has to overcome a Renault protest

Ian Parkes

Wednesday 15 July 2020 15:12

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Racing Point boss Otmar Szafnauer has warned the rest of Formula 1 there is more to come from his team's car this season.

The RP20 has undoubtedly caused a stir, resulting in a protest from Renault, one that Racing Point has savagely dismissed as misconceived and poorly informed. It is confident the FIA will dismiss the claims of the French manufacturer.

If the car proves legal, it may go on to give Mercedes and Red Bull a run for their money at certain circuits if its full potential can be unlocked.

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"Looking at it from an optimistic standpoint, the car has great pace," remarked Szafnauer. "We've done a great job over the winter, [although] we still have some learning to do.

"As you saw, when we ran it for the first time in full-wet conditions [in qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix] we didn't get the most out of the pace.

"But we learned a lot on Saturday, so the next time we've got wet conditions, I think we can actually extract the performance that's in the car.

"Come race day, it's really, really strong, so that makes us optimistic for the races that are in front of us."

The poor performance in wet conditions resulted in Sergio Perez starting from a surprising 17th, only to charge through the field to finish sixth, a drive that led to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner proclaiming all in F1 should be worried by the car's pace.

Explaining what unfolded during qualifying, Szafnauer said: "When you don't get the wet tyres working because they're not in the window, you're going to struggle, and it's what happened to us for a variety of reasons.

"We know what those reasons are, and were we to go into a wet qualifying tomorrow with the knowledge we gained on Saturday then it would be a different story."

The suggestion is, Racing Point is currently in a class of its own behind Mercedes and Red Bull, and comfortably ahead of other midfield runners such as McLaren and Renault.

Szafnauer added: "It's nice to hear those kinds of rumours but time will tell. In certain corners that could be true, but we've got to look at it over an entire season.

"That's what we are pushing to do, and work hard towards, so hopefully, we are successful in doing that. There might be some circuits that suit us a bit better than Austria did, and we will be closer, but how much? I don't know, it's really hard to tell.

"I'm just happy the race pace was good, but like I've said there's still some learning to do, and we still haven't optimised the race weekend yet."

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