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Racing Point F1 team set to expand facilities at Silverstone base

The Racing Point Formula 1 team is set to expand its Silverstone base and facilities.

The team recently purchased 27 acres of farmland that encompasses the current three acre site where the team has been located since the summer of 1991 in its early days as Jordan Grand Prix.

Land on the other side of the current factory, which now features some industrial units, is still owned by Eddie Jordan.

"We don't have planning permission yet, but we hope that's forthcoming," said team principal Otmar Szafnauer of the expanded site.

"We're working on the plans now, to apply.

"There's a six month process to go through all the necessary steps, and we're probably three to four months into that process before we apply for planning. Once we have permission, then we'll start.

"I think it will take about two or two and half years, probably two years from now, for us to finish the new factory, and then we're going to move in."

A key motivation for Racing Point is to move all of its facilities to one site, with the aerodynamics department currently based at the team's Brackley windtunnel seven miles away.

The team also faces a complication in its planning process given that its move to a new base will coincide with the 2021 regulation change and cost-cap introduction.

"We've got to right-size it, but I don't know what that it. Unless you know the regulations, it's hard to know," said Szafnauer.

"How do we know how big to make the factory, how little to make it, what to include, what not to include?

"What we do know is that the building we're in, with the people we have, is too small. That we know for sure.

"We don't know is if we need a new windtunnel, for example.

"So we bought enough land so that we can expand or contract as needed, based on the regulations."

Even though Racing Point is benefiting from substantial investment following its acquisition by a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll, Szafnauer said it has some way to go to reach the spending level that a cost cap is likely to be pitched at.

"We have some insight as to what 2021 will look like, even with a cost cap," he said.

"And even with the cost cap that's been talked about, we will need more space. Right now we are about 300 people on one site, and another 100 on another.

"We can't really fit many more than 350 in the site where we're at, and we're already at 425.

"But I think we're going to grow. So wherever the cost cap comes out, I think we'll be way under it, and we'll start growing.

"Somebody told me today that from a human resource perspective we are the second smallest team.

"I think Haas has less people, but they spend more money.

"So from a budget perspective we're probably still the lowest, and from people we're the second lowest."

Zdroj: autosport.com