Aston Martin emphasises status as factory team: "It's been a mammoth task"

Although Racing Point's transition to Aston Martin is outwardly a change of brand, there is more going on behind the scenes to make it a real factory team comparable to Mercedes and Ferrari. Team boss Otmar Szafnauer tells Formula1.com.

"It has been a mammoth task," Szafnauer said. "It’s easy to forget that we’ve been putting the groundwork in place for a brand-new era alongside a very challenging global setting, all the while balancing those tasks with our most successful Formula 1 season to date."

So the team has been busy preparing as Aston Martin for some time now, and meeting the wishes of owner Lawrence Stroll. He wants to be competitive as soon as possible. And as a factory team, that means they will no longer be satisfied with a place in the sub-top.

“While the challenge was once establishing ourselves as the most efficient team on the grid, now there’s an exciting opportunity to establish ourselves as a top team", said Szafnauer, who says the team has all the ingredients to win regularly. Partly because they try to maintain that efficiency.