Why there's much more to come from new Racing Point

As Force India, this team made itself Formula 1's best of the rest and it should have achieved that again in 2018 but for its financial problems. After a bit of scurrying, it was bought by a consortium headed by Lawrence Stroll, father of new driver Lance Stroll, and it goes into this season in a very different situation.

During the years of Vijay Mallya's leadership, the team was kept alive but it was never quite able to take a long-term view on where it wanted to get to. And with the problem getting worse, something had to change.

The new funding allows proper planning for the future, so the world really is at the team's feet. Personally, I hope it doesn't try to run before it can walk because it's not as simple as flicking on the light switch in a big new factory. It takes time to get to the front in F1.

With Sergio Perez leading the team and being joined by Stroll - who I think will do a good job, and hasn't yet had the tools to show his ability - there will also hopefully be more harmony between the drivers than there was with Perez and Esteban Ocon.

The 2019 car is once again a well-conceived and optimised package, supported by an aggressive development plan to take it through to Melbourne and then onto the European season.

The front-wing concept is halfway between what Ferrari has done, with the flaps sweeping down towards the outer endplates, and Mercedes, which has a more conventional flap arrangement but with the endplate sweeping inwards at the trailing edge.

The five-element wing has the first two elements attached to the mandatory central section. Going rearwards, the flap chord lengths reduce slightly. The feeling is that the outer section of these new wings is not really that productive for downforce, and teams are still playing with the flow to see what other parts further downstream they can influence to get that downforce back.

The radiator inlet area is very complex and the airflow in this area needs to be as consistent as possible

The airbox inlet is as large, or larger, than most. This area not only feeds the turbo, it's also used to get some airflow to the intercooler and other components requiring cooling. By having this larger opening, it will be possible to have slightly smaller radiator side inlets.

The radiator inlet area is very complex and the airflow in this area needs to be as consistent as possible otherwise it affects the performance of the floor's side-sealing detail and, in turn, diffuser performance. Having the smaller inlet will mean that when the radiator core just can't flow the volume of air presented to it and the duct blocks off the spillage that's going around the sidepod, it will be easier to manage.

The diffuser area uses a double trailing edge flap arrangement to help keep the airflow attached. The outer sides of the diffuser turn out fairly aggressively to connect the underside of the floor and diffuser to the low-pressure area behind the rear tyre.

The rear-wing endplates have the now-customary step halfway up, with vertical turning vanes on the lower section of both parts. These turning vanes will set up vortices that again will improve the performance of the diffuser.

On the first morning of the test, Racing Point spent quite a bit of time using flow vis paint all around the diffuser and rear suspension area. This will give an indication of what the airflow is doing on the component surfaces. And if there are any airflow separation problems they can be identified and rectified with a planned update.

Racing Point is also running a significant cord length T-wing just in front of and above the exhaust outlet. This will help tidy up the airflow direction as it passes underneath the throat of the rear wing, improving the wing's performance.

We need at least some of the midfield teams to make a step and join the big boys at the front. Let's hope the extra funding that this team now has gets spent wisely and it moves forward - perhaps to get a few more Racing Point(s).

Jake Boxall-Legge explains the RP19's key details

Following a winter of dilly-dallying over its new identity, Racing Point stuck to its interim name and remained resplendent in its bright pink colour scheme (albeit throwing some blue into the mix). It's a fresh start for the team formerly known as Force India, now with funds in the pot to begin its regrowth after running on fumes for the past couple of seasons.

Crucially, the team's core of brilliant engineers is retained, and although the financial stresses of last year threatened to peel away the most sought-after elements of Force India's technical team, the Racing Point takeover assuaged those fears - meaning that the Andrew Green-led design taskforce can pick up from where it left off.

The bulkhead has a pronounced bulge to house the suspension rockers and inerter, evidently finding enough flow attachment over the top to not need an S-duct

Looking at the front end, it's certainly retained the DNA of the team's design practices over the past few years. The nose retains the two nostrils either side of the crash structure, sucking airflow straight through them and firing it at the turning vanes behind. The opening between the nose and central section of the wing features a marginal bulge on the underside, forcing the airflow to take a longer path along the bottom to counter the effects of lift as a lower pressure zone is developed.

The front wing is very neat, and on today's evidence, conventional. Splitting into two, the mainplane features the two largest chord lengths, while the three flap elements are a lot shorter in chord - delicately driving airflow around the tyre. The outboard flows are developed further by the curved endplates and footplate extension inside the wing, rolling up a vortex on the underside to then be posted externally.

Like the Haas design, the footplate ends before the trailing edge of the endplate, which is trapezoidal in shape - extending slightly at the top rear corner to poke a little bit more flow around the tyres. The temperature sensors and flap adjuster are also both used to work with the outwash component of the airflow, as Racing Point seeks marginal gains in this area.

The front suspension is quite conventional in layout, mounted low down to reduce sidepod inlet blockage, while the upper wishbone's hub mounting point is raised - similar to that pioneered by Mercedes last season. As seen in the previous two cars, the RP19's bulkhead has a pronounced bulge to house the suspension rockers and inerter, evidently finding enough flow attachment over the top to not need an S-duct.

Continuing with its complex bargeboard geometry, adapted for the new rules, Racing Point's assembly features eight cuts along the top. This collects the airflow from the suspension geometry, conditions it and brings it down towards the floor, helping it to pump out a greater level of performance. The floor itself features the now-standard longitudinal cuts along the edge, with a small scroll positioned further forward to offer the airflow off the bargeboards one final chance to clean up.

The sidepods feature a clean undercut around the inlet, as this is yet another of the 2019-spec cars to conform to the trend of a highly-positioned aperture. Following around to the rear, the undercut folds underneath the flared bodywork, which boosts cooling. At the inlet itself, the top deformable structure is curled upwards at the end, presumably building up a vortex, which lifts above the rear wheel to trim the amount of wake it produces. The mirrors are also mounted to this horizontal piece, double-mounted in the centre.

At the rear of the engine cover is a T-wing, angled downwards so that the propagating tip vortices can work with the lower portion of the rear wing endplates. Here there are two overhanging strakes, curling inwards to address the vortices created by the rear wing geometry.

The rear wing is single-mounted, with the attachment points curved around the exhaust. Opting for this produces less drag compared to the more common double-mounting arrangement, but ultimately offers less versatility; a double-mounted rear wing allows a team to fit a monkey seat-style device in between to boost downforce.

Although the halo doesn't feature an array of flow conditioners, the area closest to the chassis mounting point has a raised ridge to counteract any rolling vortices produced over the top, which can interrupt the airflow into the intake.

There's plenty more expected from Racing Point, as the team has already scheduled a few updates for the first collection of races this season. With greater financial firepower, the engineers based at Silverstone will have plenty more resource to play with in realising the full potential of the RP19.

But even with more money, the team needs to retain its attention to detail that has helped it to punch above its weight over the past few seasons. Even though the team's identity has changed, it doesn't need to change its core qualities.