This is the new ‘Pink Panther’ Formula 1 car from Racing Point. The team revealed its 2020 livery at BWT’s Austrian base in Mondsee including the news on a long-term sponsorship deal with water technology company.
Featuring a revised paint job on new RP20, the team’s previous title sponsor, betting firm SportPesa, is no longer involved.
Racing Point drivers Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll will again drive the car, with the former signing a new contract to stay with the team for a number of years.
The team will now compete as ‘BWT Racing Point F1 Team’, and branding for its title sponsor is more prominent on the car and on the race suits compared to 2019.
The RP20 is the second car produced by Racing Point since it was rescued by a consortium led by Lance Stroll’s father Lawrence Stroll ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix in 2018.
It was announced that the team will be rebranded as Aston Martin next year after Lawrence Stroll bought into the manufacturer last month.
The 2020 season is the second that Sergio Perez – who joined the team in 2014 – and Stroll will be teammates.
They finished P10 and P15 in the 2019 drivers’ standings, with Racing Point ending up seventh in the constructors’ championship.
“This year we want to be a strong fourth,” team boss Otmar Szafnauer said. “We want to be closer to the top three that we’ve ever been in the past, and we want to be top of the midfield.
“Last year was a bit of a difficult year for us, we ended up seventh, on the back end of the midfield grid, but this year we want to take a step up and be where we normally can be.
“In order to do that, we’ve had to do a lot of development work over the winter. It’s not that easy, the competition is getting stronger: McLaren did a really good job last year; Renault, with the might of the motor company behind them and the 650-plus employees that they have, aren’t going to be easy [to beat]; even Toro Rosso [AlphaTauri] with the resurgence of the Honda powertrain did really well towards the end of last year.
“But I’m confident that the work we’ve done over the winter on the new car, and the work that Mercedes, our powertrain partner, has done on the powertrain, and the hard work the drivers have been doing to keep fit and work in our simulators, we will have a good chance to hit our targets.”
It’s going to be a fascinating season for the BWT-sponsored team and it will be interesting to see the performance compared to their rivals. Best wishes Racing Point.
Social media:
https://twitter.com/RacingPointF1/status/1229410233488900102
https://twitter.com/RacingPointF1/status/1229408415040114688
Official site:
https://www.racingpointf1.com/news/racing-point-f1-team-unveils-bwt-as-title-partner
News stories:
https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/11936437/final-f1-2020-car-revealed-as-racing-point-launch-new-rp20
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.racing-point-reveal-2020-f1-car-and-title-sponsor-change.2YWK5q19JTEbR2sAOmNIsj.html
https://the-race.com/formula-1/racing-point-reveals-2020-livery-without-sportpesa/
https://the-race.com/formula-1/a-proper-shot-for-racing-point-mark-hughes-tech-snapshots/
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/racing-point-sportpesa-deal-termination/4687087/
Racing Point boss predicts podiums – and has cheeky jab at Romain Grosjean at 2020 launch. Article taken from Formula1.com.
Every team are world champions at this stage of the year, according to Sergio Perez, and Racing Point are certainly aiming high with a prediction of podiums in 2020.
A new title sponsor was unveiled alongside the RP20 on Monday afternoon in Austria, with BWT expanding a partnership that already included the iconic pink livery. After finishing last season strongly, Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer is eyeing even more success this year and believes podiums could be on the cards with the new car.
“I’m going to make a prediction here…” Szafnauer said. “I predict that before the race they’ll be drinking water and after a race this year both of them will be on the podium at least once drinking the champagne.”
While a podium would be a standout result, Szafnauer is also aiming high when it comes to the overall constructors’ championship, challenging Racing Point to jump ahead of McLaren, Renault and AlphaTauri compared to 2019.
“This year we want to be a strong fourth, we want to be closer to the top three than we’ve ever been in the past and we want to be in the top of the midfield. Last year was a bit of a difficult year for us, we ended up seventh, we were on the back end of the midfield grid.
“This year we want to take a step up and be where we normally can be. In order to do that we’ve had to do a lot of development work over the winter. It’s not that easy, the competition’s getting stronger, McLaren did a really good job last year; Renault with the might of the motor company behind them and the 650+ employees that they have aren’t going to be easy; even Toro Rosso [AlphaTauri] with the resurgence of the Honda powertrain did really well towards the end of last year.
“But I’m confident with the work that we’ve done over the winter on the new car and the work that Mercedes our powertrain partner has done on the powertrain, and the hard work the drivers have been doing to keep fit and work in our simulator we’ll have a good chance to hit our targets.”
As part of the BWT deal, the title sponsor have pledged to build a well in Gambia for every race that a Racing Point car scores points in, but that incentive also drew a cheeky jab at another driver on the grid from Szafnauer.
“We want to outscore our competition and for us to achieve what we’ve set ourselves to do this year we’ve got to get both drivers in the points at every race. We’ve done that in the past – anyway we’ve had the potential to have both of them in the points at every race. Sometimes on lap one you don’t know what’s going to happen – [Romain] Grosjean’s still racing, he could run into you, you never know.
“But at least if we’ve got the potential to have both of them in the points at every race, then not only will we hit our target but we’ll also hit the target of the wells in Gambia.”