Racing Point RP19
Last year the future of Force India was uncertain as the team entered administration in July 2018. It is a threat that looms over any small racing team, regardless of the series. Luckily for the pink panthers, an influx of investment from Sergio Perez and now Lance Stroll and his father, has not only saved the team, but is allowing it to grow at a rapid rate. Welcome to the 2019 grid; Sport Persa Racing Point F1 team.
‘We had no money, no idea what was going to happen, and had to make some choices to keep us running,’ Andrew Green, Technical Director at Racing Point explains. ‘That meant finding the most cost-effective way to keep development of the new car running and we ultimately decided to use as much of the 2018 car as we possibly could.’
Of course, investment not only means more resources to play with, but consequently, more upgrades to take to the track. ‘This year, we will be bringing updates to the car as soon as they’re ready,’ highlights Green. ‘We won’t be waiting to put together bigger packages, but will focus on making incremental gains at every race.’
This page will not only delve into the technical secrets behind this year’s Racing Point RP19 F1 car, but will also keep track of all the technical updates that Racing Point will bring to its RP19 throughout the season.
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Racing Point RP19 Chinese Tech update
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Racing Point RP19 Bahrain Tech update
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Racing Point RP19 Australia Tech update
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Racing Point RP19 Launch
Racing Point RP19 Chinese Tech update
As ever at race weekends, the first few installation laps during FP1 provide the perfect opportunity to run aerodynamic rakes and/or flowviz paint. Here we can see a unique pressure rake on the rear wing of the Racing Point RP19, measuring the conditions of the airflow that the rear wing is subjected to. This is important information that teams use to optimise their designs to maximise the performance of their wings given the measured conditions. This also provides excellent data for correlating with CFD and wind tunnel models.
Although it may look like the Racing Point RP19 is running an F3-style air intake pod, it is more likely that this black torpedo-shaped device is actually a camera. The two angled openings at the bottom could suggest that there are two thermal cameras measuring the surface temperature of the front and rear tyres. Alternatively this could be a larger camera potentially filming for either marketing purposes or for the latest Netflix ‘Drive to Survive’ documentary.
Racing Point RP19 Bahrain Tech update
From the photos we have access to, it seemed that throughout the Australian GP both the Racing Point cars swapped between running an additional element on the front brake duct and then removing it. However, in Australia, both cars ran with this iteration at some point during the weekend.
In Bahrain, the story was different again. The number 18 car continued to run with it as it did in Melbourne (bottom right) whereas the number 11 car had it removed (bottom left).
Another difference between the two iterations of front brake duct is the detail below the duct itself. Note how the inner wheel cover is a clean, flat surface on the version ran at Bahrain compared to the version ran at Melbourne. Despite the restrictive regulations concerning the front brake duct, the rules specify a 5mm gap between the wheel rim and the brake duct. As you can see here in both versions, Racing Point have been taking advantage of this.
Following on from Australia, where the addition of a sidepod inlet element was only on car number 18, in Bahrain this was featured on both cars and is highlighted in blue below.
Racing Point RP19 Australia Tech update
According to Racing Point’s Technical Director Andrew Green, the RP19 revealed at pre-season testing was very much a ‘vanilla’ car, with lots of tech updates expected for the Australian GP. One of those updates was the front brake duct, which has been an area that Racing Point, like most teams, have been particularly focusing on throughout the beginning of the year. The iteration ran at the Australian GP for car number 11 featured an additional element towards the inside of the wheel.
This element could be used to try and turn more airflow into a particular part of the wheel assembly to extract heat from the brakes and potentially use this to heat the rim and therefore the tyres. However, it is difficult to conclude on the exact inner workings of the wheel assembly as each design varies dramatically from left to right, front to rear and from team to team.
Mirrors were a topic of discussion last year and it looks like the same will be true for 2019. This ‘vanilla’ RP19 at pre-season testing featured a simplified mirror design that was mounted on the extended bodywork above the sidepod inlet. In Australia however, the RP19 arrived with a much more extravagant and aerodynamic design which was mounted on both the extended bodywork and the main chassis.
The Racing Point RP19 arrived in Australia with an additional winglet on the side of the engine air intake.
Another modification to Racing Point’s RP19 was a dramatically modified bargeboard area as highlighted in blue below. A simpler one-piece turning vane replaced the complex array of elements from pre-season testing and a horizontal element had also been added.
Another team that updated their bargeboard design for Australia was Red Bull Racing. The RB15 featured an additional element with two vertical slots as opposed to the one piece solution seen at pre-season testing, highlighted in blue below.
Another element that was spotted at the Australian GP, was an additional feature within the sidepod inlet of the Racing Point RP19, which could be for additional support or aerodynamic gain. Interestingly, this was only spotted on the Saturday of the Australian GP, whereas the photos taken on Friday show the sidepod without this member.
After closer inspection, we find that the number 11 car (Sergio Perez) has this element, whereas the number 18 car (Lance Stroll) does not. It is not unusual for teams to experiment with an upgrade on one car. With each car’s setup tuned to the specific preferences of each driver’s driving style, the best way to test an upgrade is to run an ABA programme on one car. This is where measurements are taken during a baseline run (A), then with the upgrade (B) and then back to the baseline setup (A) to account for any changes in track or ambient conditions. The question is, which version (with or without the additional element) is the upgrade package? Could it be that Lance Stroll is now the favoured driver due to the huge investment him and his father have now put into the team, or do the pink panther’s loyalties lie with Sergio Perez who helped the Silverstone-based team out of administration?
