Otmar Szafnauer admitted points were out of reach of the Racing Point F1 Team during Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, with Sergio Pérez the only one of the two drivers to finish after Lance Stroll was caught up in an incident with Lando Norris.
Pérez finished down in a lowly fifteenth position, ahead only of the two Williams Racing cars and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi, but never had the pace throughout the weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to be a contender for the top ten. Meanwhile team-mate Stroll was eliminated after an incident with McLaren F1 Team racer Norris late on that brought out the safety car.
After the highs of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where both drivers finished inside the top nine, Szafnauer, the CEO and Team Principal of Racing Point, said the outfit were always facing an uphill struggle in Spain. However, he says they will take the result on the chin and attempt to use the post-race test at the track this Tuesday and Wednesday to further understand the potential of the RP19 chassis.
“We’ve faced an uphill struggle this weekend and unfortunately points were out of reach today,” said Szafnauer. “It’s one of those races where track position is especially important and it was difficult to make much progress in the early stages despite a solid opening lap from Sergio and Lance.
“Both cars were running line astern for a large part of the race until Lance was taken out of the race following an over-optimistic move by [Lando] Norris. Sergio was able to unlap himself under the safety car, but we simply didn’t have the pace to challenge for points in the closing stages.
“We will take this one on the chin and focus on learning more about the car in the test next week so that we can come back stronger for Monaco and beyond.”
