Highly regarded as the best pound-for-pound team in Formula 1, the team based at Silverstone has a new identity for 2021. Having won a race as Racing Point in 2020, the team rebrands as Aston Martin, with Sebastian Vettel partnering Lance Stroll.
| Drivers’ Championships | 0 |
| Constructors’ Championships | 0 |
| First F1 Appearance | 1959 Dutch Grand Prix |
| Wins | 0 |
| Poles | 0 |
Aston Martin may be a new name for 2021, but this team – and much of its DNA – can be traced back to 1991, when Eddie Jordan entered Formula 1 with his Jordan team. Michael Schumacher was given his F1 début with this team at Spa in the same year. The Jordan team finished fifth in the Constructors’ Championship in their maiden season – and had similar success again with a reliable Hart engine in 1994 and 1995. The yellow team’s first win came at the unforgettable 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, where Damon Hill took his final F1 victory. Their most successful season came the year after, finishing third overall behind Ferrari and McLaren.
With the ever increasing costs in modern day Formula 1, success became more difficult, though the team managed one final victory at the rain affected 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix. Eddie Jordan sold the team in 2005. Despite changing ownerships three times over four years – from Jordan, to Midland, to Spkyer, to Force India – the team’s base has never strayed from Silverstone, just a stone’s throw from the iconic British circuit. The interim years between Jordan and Force India brought the team little success – with Marcus Winkelhock leading for a short while in a chaotic 2007 European Grand Prix, his first and only Formula One race, being one of the only major talking points.
Spyker became Force India for the start of the 2008 season, after Vijay Mallya bought the team in October 2007. They found themselves picking up where Spyker left off, as backmarkers, finishing tenth in the championship. Taking advantage of the regulations, and a new engine supply from Mercedes, in 2009 the team were relatively competitive and even took their first pole at Spa, where Giancarlo Fisichella finished on the podium.
They became a solid midfield team for the next seasons, with drivers like Adrian Sutil, Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg all regularly scoring points. Hulkenberg led the race for a short time at the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, before colliding with Lewis Hamilton. Another step forward came in 2014 at the dawn of the hybrid era, thanks to the team having the superior Mercedes engine. Sergio Perez, who joined the team from McLaren for 2014, was regularly in contention for podiums in 2014 and 2015, and the team rose to become ‘best of the rest’ in 2016, beating Williams in a season long battle for fourth place.
The best pound-for-pound team delivered once again in 2017, finishing best of the rest behind the top three teams despite a driver line-up change ahead of the season. Though Force India failed to score a podium for the first time since 2013, they were in a battle of their own for fourth place, striding well clear of Williams in the competitive order, amassing their best ever total of 187 points – 104 clear of their closest competitors. Their new recruit, Esteban Ocon, ruffled more feathers than many expected, regularly battling more experienced team-mate Perez. The two were close on track, and it cost the team dear at times. Their coming together in Baku arguably cost them a double podium, while in Belgium things turned nasty as Perez forced Ocon towards the wall on the run to Eau Rouge.
Sticking with their driver line-up, and their pink colour scheme, Force India had a more trying time in 2018. Part of the team’s problem was a lack of money, which in turn led to a lack of updates on the car. By the midpoint of the season, the team entered administration, and were eventually saved with a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll. The team lost the 59 points they had earned in the first half of the year but secured their long-term future. On track, Perez and Ocon were less magnetised toward one another than they had been in 2017, though the Mexican managed to take his team-mate out of the race on the first lap in Singapore. Nevertheless, there were high points throughout the year, including a return to the podium for Perez at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while Ocon led a second row lock-out in qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix.
RACING POINT IN 2019
In their first full season as Racing Point, the team’s points tally almost halved, from 132 points in 2018 to 73 in 2019. It’s the lowest amount of points they have scored since 2011. It was somewhat of a transitional year for the team, with this being the first season in which the consortium led by Lawrence Stroll has led them through a year. Sergio Perez was joined by Stroll’s son Lance, but the Mexican was the obvious winner in the team-mate battle.
The team had been Q3 regulars in recent years, but 2019 saw a marked decrease in their car’s relative pace, leading to them appearing in the final part of qualifying only five times. Between the Spanish Grand Prix in May and the British Grand Prix in July, Racing Point scored only two points with Stroll’s ninth place finish at his home race. There was improvement in the second of the year however, as the capable Perez scored in all but one round. The same could not be said of Stroll, who gained only three points during that period. Read more: Racing Point’s 2019 F1 Season In Stats.
RACING POINT IN 2020
Racing Point’s RP20 was dubbed the “Pink Mercedes” during winter testing, due to its resemblance to Mercedes’ 2019 car. The team were ultimately fined €400,000 and deducted fifteen points following protests on their brake ducts. That wasn’t the team’s only off-track concern in 2020. Both Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll tested positive for coronavirus, with Nico Hulkenberg called up to replace them each time.
On track, the team enjoyed their most successful season since 2017, as well as their first win since 2003. Between them, Perez and Stroll recorded four podium finishes – two of those being at the Sakhir Grand Prix, where Perez won and Stroll finished third, recording the team’s first double podium result since their Jordan days at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix. Stroll also impressed in difficult conditions at the Turkish Grand Prix, taking his first pole position – and the team’s first since 2009. Throughout the year, Racing Point were embroiled in a battle for third place in the Constructors’ Championship. The team were ahead following Perez’s win at the penultimate race of the season, but slipped behind at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, ultimately finishing fourth. Read more: Racing Point’s 2020 F1 Season In Stats.
The team re-brand as Aston Martin in 2021, with four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel joining the team in place of Sergio Perez. Aston Martin’s ambitions of racing at the front are clear: but will they have more success in their battle to be best of the rest in 2021?
TEAM SILVERSTONE’S RECENT F1 HISTORY
| Year | Championship Position | Wins | Poles | Drivers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 7th (68 points) | 0 | 0 | Adrian Sutil, Vitantonio Liuzzi |
| 2011 | 6th (69 points) | 0 | 0 | Adrian Sutil, Paul di Resta |
| 2012 | 7th (109 points) | 0 | 0 | Nico Hulkenberg, Paul di Resta |
| 2013 | 6th (77 points) | 0 | 0 | Adrian Sutil, Paul di Resta |
| 2014 | 6th (155 points) | 0 | 0 | Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg |
| 2015 | 5th (136 points) | 0 | 0 | Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg |
| 2016 | 4th (173 points) | 0 | 0 | Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg |
| 2017 | 4th (187 points) | 0 | 0 | Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon |
| 2018 | 7th (52 points) | 0 | 0 | Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon |
| 2019 | 7th (73 points) | 0 | 0 | Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll |
| 2020 | 4th (195 points) | 1 | 1 | Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg |