Szafnauer: Well-heeled Racing Point 'very careful' to preserve efficiency

Racing Point boss Otmar Szafnauer admits the team is now well endowed, but a solid financial foundation won't keep the outfit from running its operations as efficiently as possible.

The ex-Force India concern endured a near-death experience last summer, and was saved from a painful demise by a consortium of investors led by billionaire Lawrence Stroll.

The rescue operation led to a new identity - Racing Point - and especially to a new and much improved financial condition, where adequate resources have brought the team a new foundation from which to prosper.

• Racing Point F1 to change name again before 2019 season!

However, being flush with cash won't mean that the pink outfit will spend freely, with Szafnauer insisting that efficiency will remain well embedded in the team's mode of operation.

"I've seen it so many times where teams have decided to either build a new wind tunnel or a new factory or new facilities, and the performance of the car suffered because the same people that design and specify a factory are the same ones that design and specify the racing car, and if you're doing one you can’t be doing the other " explained Szafnauer in Formula1.com's latest Beyond the Grid podcast.

"So we've got to be very careful that if we do embark – and we will embark – on improving our facilities and infrastructure, that the car doesn't suffer.

"We've got... to continue to maintain that efficient nature that we have," added the American.

"We can't lose that, and if you do have a little bit more financial resource but you stay efficient, then your output should be even better.

"The risk is that, if you've got significantly more financial resource, you lose the efficiency, and then your output is no better, but you've spent a lot of money – or even worse, your output can be worse and you've spent a bunch of money.

"So we've got to consciously be aware that that can happen and make sure it doesn't happen to us."

Among Racing Point's main investments plans is a brand new, bigger and better-equipped factory, destined to take the team to the next level in F1. It will all happen in due course however.

"All those types of things we're discussing now," said Szafnauer

"So a bigger factory – but to build a bigger factory, you've got to buy the land first.

"Also within the factory, to detail what type of equipment [we] want, how much of it, what is important, what isn’t important.

"All of this while we mustn’t take our eye off the ball – that is, building, designing, producing and developing a competitive racing car."

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