Tag: Racing Point

Have the Pink Panthers finally got us tickled pink?

We’re not going to pretend there isn’t an enormous elephant in the room here, but starting with the livery, it might just be the best livery produced by the Silverstone based team under its many different guises for years. It only took them 4 years to get right a pink livery, and funnily enough it was back to basics. Just pink with a huge decal at the back. No pointless dashes of white or blue, or that hideous bubble effect of 2017. Clean. I still wouldn’t put it up there with my favourites but it certainly stands out as always and has become a contemporary F1 icon. It’s no Marlboro McLaren, Red Bull, Rothmans Williams, sure, but there’s a certain level of performance and legendary drivers associated with those cars. Ironically enough, it’s similar to the Jordan Yellow that adorned the same team’s cars when I was just a nipper, and those are nothing short of iconic.

And now to the elephant. That bulbous looking trunk looks familiar. Ok that was stretching the metaphor far but, I don’t think this has ever been said this literally before, but it’s a carbon copy of the W10. But let’s not kid ourselves, they’ve not just pulled a Haas and made a similar front wing before having their own philosophy downstream; the bargeboard and sidepod inlet is an imposter last year’s Merc. At least Haas and Ferrari, Red Bull and Toro Rosso (at the start of the team) were explicit over what was happening. Toro Rosso, now AlphaTauri, since 2010 have been their own team, no longer taking the previous year’s Red Bull. Haas whilst taking bits and pieces from Ferrari, have always been independent and to be fair, are still only in their 5^th season. Racing Point have technically been on the grid since 1991, and have been bigging themselves on how the new investment bringing to the front end of grid, much further than Toro Rosso will ever get. Using another teams car or not, it’s just how they exist. 2008 may be an odd exception but never near consistent race wins.

Should Formula 1 really allow this much ‘convergence’ if you can call it that? Satellite teams are not allowed at the moment but should they? They can’t completely shut out the Haas method but should they draw a line? I mean if the FIA don’t specify the rules and give some clarity, we remove all independent teams from F1 and we completely lose the Brawn moment, or the Leicester moment. MotoGP’s racing is extremely good yes, but it’s the same 3 or 4 factory outfits winning. You don’t have your Williams equivalent in MotoGP, you lose the plucky Jordan teams punching away above their weight in a machine they designed themselves too. The worst thing is too, even if we plumbed for satellite teams overnight, it will take seasons to get it right. Seasons of tuning to get anywhere near the way MotoGP has got its concessions at the moment. If Toro Rosso weren’t inheriting title winning machinery but had so much backlash at the time, why aren’t we making as much noise over inheritance over a team getting a car that dominated most the season before?

If Racing Point wants to become a legitimate race winning team on a regular basis that’s fine, it just won’t happen chasing another season’s tail. Plus they need the qualify this partnership with Mercedes. We know Williams won’t sell out, Haas haven’t exactly sold out. Have the ties become much closer with Mercedes over the summer? Because it’s sort of soured the midfield battle and Racing Point’s reputation of David against the F1 Goliaths. Maybe I’m paying too close attention to early test times, after all we should see newer, more proper 2020 packages in test two. Maybe I’m being too harsh, I just feel there needs to be some sort of balance, or prevention of fully copying of a complete aero package. Of course it would be great to have Racing Point podiums this year, but it would always feel undermined.

Perez v Stroll is another interesting dynamic. What happens when a team legend meets an undropable driver. Stroll needs to fix his qualifying for sure, but you can’t argue with the positions he makes up in the race. Perez is a known quantity, and very capable of podium finishes. Moving into Aston Martin next year and another year of increased investment, you’d feel they’d want continuity from car to car. Having said that, it completely depends on how deep the Mercedes relationship is. Maybe it’s another duff Williams and they want to pull Russell out of it into a more competitive Aston Martin? Maybe Bottas cost Mercedes a constructors, and they’d feel bad by not giving him a seat so he goes to develop the B team? We’ll see but I’d doubt if there’s any driver movement here. Where they finish this season depends on the R&D race, I guess. There’s stiff competition at the top of the midfield. Can Racing Point develop this car and has a year old car been well and truly outdeveloped? Time will tell, but that’s the question they have to ask themselves in 2020.

Sport Pesa Racing Point Super Fast Canadian Force Canada Racing Formula One Racing Team… Racing?

Force Canada just unveiled their first car in their home country of Canada. Wait? It’s not called Force Canada? Then how come they spoke non stop about said country? It’s still called Racing Point? And it’s now more of a mouthful than Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer?

I’d forgotten how tedious proper car launches are in Formula 1. There needs to be a happy middle ground between full launch and the to-the-point unveilings you get at a shakedown or quick launch at the morning of day 1, test 1. “Driver 1 are you excited?” “Yes.” “Driver 2 how hard have the team worked over the winter?” “Very.” “Shall we reveal the car now?” That’s pretty much what you need. Maybe not that extreme, but get the drivers out first! Next to the car, the drivers are the stars of this show. If you’re outside Formula 1 looking in, you probably don’t care much what the bosses have to say. Show the car, then pad out a show with interviews that the press probably care more about. You may disagree and you have every right to, but that’s just my thoughts on the matter.

On to the team then. Racing Point start where Force India left off. This year’s livery is certainly tidier than last year’s, which was stronger than the one before it. The addition of blue is great, the contrast it provides is brilliant, I think it’s better than using black as in 2017. It’s just a few rough edges that spoil the look. Starting with the front wing and nose cone, the blue is striking, and just having pink on the nose is so much better than last year’s look. Cleanliness is key for me in liveries, which I’ll keep referring to but Racing Point have really cleaned up around the front. We then move to the white BWT bit where the nose meets the rest of the car. I hope it’s a necessity for them to need the white band for the BWT logo, because I don’t like it. It’s just fussy just to be fussy, just like this blog is becoming ranty just for content’s sake. Keep it clean! The deeper pink and grey lines are growing on me, I’m still yet to fully make up my mind on their appearance around the sidepod and radiator entry. I either think they’re too thick on the sidepod, or they’re just right. One thing that does bug me though, is the off centre BWT logo. Again, it’s probably just one of those things where it would look worse if the logo were centred, so I’ll let them off just this once! They definitely should’ve extended the dark blue on the engine cover and shark fin remnant so there is no pink at the top. Again just small things to keep it clean. It’s a small, small thing but it’s probably the worst part of the livery for me.

Is Lance just going to Stroll around the place?

Lance has had his fair share of stick during his 2 seasons of racing at the top. Despite being one of the youngest podium sitters in Formula 1 history, people insist on him being a pay driver. Carlos Sainz Jr. brings his Estrella Galicia 0,0 sponsorship and more than likely LaLiga to McLaren this year, but because he’s considered to be fast he’s not a pay driver. Lance has a podium, Carlos doesn’t so is he really a pay driver? There are still question marks about his ability for sure, he had a rookie season in a midfield car, and was comprehensively beaten by Massa, but we don’t know how much he’s improved because that Williams was a dog last year. To grab a podium in a mad race is a Perez style characteristic, but Lance has to show that he is on Sergio’s level otherwise you feel he is a marked man. We don’t know how many chances he’ll get in his dad’s team, but to go far in business you have to be ruthless. But how ruthless will Lawrence be?

Sergio will be consistently around the top of the midfield, as always. It’s whether he can keep a hold of his aggression because if this driver line-up turns as frosty as Ocon – Perez, Perez will more than likely be held responsible for it. He’s a quality driver but when Mercedes have Russell and Ocon waiting in the wings, a quality replacement driver for a Mercedes powered team is not hard to find. Keep on eye on this battle, it could get tasty and political, just how Formula 1 fans like it.

Again, the midfield is so close that I can’t really predict where the runners and riders will end up. I can’t help but feel Renault might well break away from the midfield and form their own little club featuring just themselves. I do, however have no doubts that Racing Point will be at the sharp end of the midfield, as long as they don’t have a driver implosion. But for now it’s nice to have the Pink Panthers back securely in Formula 1, they are the plucky team in F1 that all sports have and need.