Racing Point were born out of the ashes of Force India. In 2018 the Silverstone-based team fell into financial trouble during the 2018 season, with Lawrence Stroll and a consortium stepping in to buy the assets of the team ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix that year, renaming the entry Racing Point Force India before finally becoming Racing Point for the 2019 season.
Even as Force India this team has only experienced a modicum of success. They achieved one pole position, in 2009, and have claimed 6 podium finishes almost exclusively thanks to Sergio Perez.
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Racing Point are yet to reach either of those milestones. Lance Stroll achieved a fourth-place finish at this year's wet and wild German Grand Prix, but a step on the podium eludes this team. Can you be the one to take them to the top of Formula 1?
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Expectations
Racing Point aren’t looking for immediate high-end results, put points finishes are a minimum while you push the team forward toward podiums. Already considering themselves a leading midfield team, just finishing 7th consistently will not be enough.
This team also prefer sportsmanship from their drivers, so be sure to stay respectful in your responses to media questions because they will quickly get annoyed with you trying to show off.
Racing Point R&D
Research & development is crucial to your hopes of pushing the team toward the front of the grid. They sit tied for fourth in overall vehicle performance with Haas and McLaren, making them your immediate competitors on race weekends.
The Mercedes powertrain in the back of the Racing Point gives them a good starting point in terms of straight-line speed, but the rest of the package needs some considerable work.
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They start career mode with the joint-top powertrain, but come in 8th for aerodynamic and chassis performance. That creates a car that will dominate the midfield at places like Azerbaijan and Canada but struggles to compete in places like Melbourne, Monaco, and Singapore.
The focus of your initial R&D work should be at bringing the chassis and aerodynamics more in line with the powertrain performance. This will not only improve raw car performance but have the added benefit of increasing driveability, allowing you to have more confidence behind the wheel and trust when pushing it into corners.
With your initial budget of 1,500 resource points you should purchase the aero efficiency upgrade so that all department upgrades are cheaper, and then get the first chassis upgrade. That will get your development underway immediately while also making life easier for that double major upgrade at the top of the aero R&D tree.
As you can see Racing Point has a veritable maze of upgrades for you to navigate. The biggest set is the 25 aerodynamic upgrades you can get. It's a long path to any ultimate upgrade there, but the chassis ultimate upgrades are a little closer. Meanwhile, the powertrain track should not be ignored, but it is a pretty straight forward path to those ever-crucial ultimate upgrades.
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Future
Nailing your practice programs is the key to developing this team as they need a lot of resource points immediately. There is just one minor upgrade available straight away, with a trio of major ones that cost 1,000 a piece.
Racing Point's competitive car could put you in the mix with Red Bull at early power tracks like Azerbaijan, but by the time you get to Spa and Monza the team will need to be well on the way with aerodynamic and chassis developments or you will be left behind not just by the big three teams, but by Haas and McLaren too.
If you can get those two major aerodynamic upgrades quickly then Racing Point could be leading the midfield by the French Grand Prix and trying to bridge the gap up to the top 3. You shouldn't expect to regularly complete for podiums until the European leg of season 2, but the upgrades have a compounding effect and it can soon become a snowball of improvements and upgrades. You should get your first race win by the second half of season 2, and maybe even compete for the World Championship.