How Lawrence Stroll's private jet saved Racing Point at Sakhir

F1 News

8 December 2020 at 16:15
Last update 9 December 2020 at 14:34
  • GPblog.com

The two consecutive weekends in Bahrain were two extremes for Racing Point when it comes to results. Nevertheless, the team had almost missed the two podium finishes last weekend, and the private jet of team owner Lawrence Stroll had to come to the rescue. 

In the first weekend of the Bahrain GP, Stroll's Racing Point was knocked over and Sergio Perez's engine went up in flames. The two drivers then conquered first and third place in Sakhir the following week. However, this almost didn't happen because the team was short of spare parts after Bahrain, Szafnauer now explains. 

"We had a big shunt last week and we also had one car on fire," says the Racing Point principal to Motorsport.com. "We had a scant amount of spares and parts … We could not put two cars together.”

Private jet to the rescue 

“But everybody worked really hard back at the factory, night and day. … We flew Lawrence's airplane back. It waited until Thursday to fly the car parts out, so we could build two race cars. That's what it is about: it [the win] is not about any one individual."