Otmar Szafnauer, the Team Principal and CEO of the Racing Point F1 Team, has issued a warning to team owner Lawrence Stroll that success for the team will not happen overnight.
The team, which becomes Aston Martin Racing in 2021 following Stroll’s recent investment in the car manufacturer, will be entering their second full season in Formula 1 in 2020 following their mid-season buying out of the ailing Sahara Force India F1 Team back in 2018.
They will come into the new season with an unchanged driver line-up of Sergio Pérez and Lance Stroll but without the delays in developing their 2020 challenger that the team faced with the 2019 machine, thanks to the problems faced in 2018.
Szafnauer says it takes time for success to come, and he says the time it took both Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team to find success in Formula 1 proves that despite heavy investment, it does not buy immediate success.
“I always say reasonable people with the same information come to the same conclusion,” said Szafnauer to Motorsport.com. “In F1, you have do it over time.
“Even Mercedes took three years to win [a race] after they bought Brawn – and that was a team that had just won the championship. Red Bull bought Jaguar, and how long did it take for them to win? Five years! So it takes time.
“But, you’re right. Lawrence is ambitious. But he’s got to understand: it doesn’t happen overnight. People often say that, ‘well, you’ve got all the money in the world now. It doesn’t matter’. But it’s still it’s not about the money. Without the money you can’t do it. But with the money it takes time.
“Red Bull had all the money in the world. [Dietrich] Mateschitz said do whatever you want. Mercedes had all the money in the world.”
