Formula 1: Force India renamed Racing Point for 2019 season
By Asher Fair
Force India have officially been renamed Racing Point for the 2019 Formula 1 season after being known as Force India since the 2008 season.
Beginning in the 2019 Formula 1 season, the team that have been known as Force India since their inception ahead of the 2008 season will no longer be known as Force India.
Instead, the team, which were sent into administration this past summer by the financial backers of Sergio Perez to protect them from the threat of a winding-up offer and then purchased by a consortium led by the father of then-Williams Martini Racing driver Lance Stroll, Lawrence Stroll, are set to be known as Racing Point starting next season.
After the Stroll-led consortium purchased the team in August, Force India forfeited all 59 of the constructor points that their two drivers, Perez and Esteban Ocon, had earned through the first 12 races of the season.
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They became known as Racing Point Force India as opposed to Sahara Force India, which they had been known as since the 2012 season, for the remaining nine races on the 2018 schedule.
Now Force India will no longer be competing at in Formula 1 at all.
The 2007 season is currently the most recent season during which Force India did not compete in Formula 1, but that is set to change next year in what is set to be Racing Point’s second overall season and first full season of competition.
In nine races to close out the 2018 season after Perez and Ocon scored 30 points and 29 points, respectively, in the first 12 races of the season, they scored 32 points and 20 points, respectively. Perez finished in eighth place in the driver standings with 62 points while Ocon finished in 12th with 49 points.
Because the team forfeited the 59 points that they earned in the first 12 races of the season, only the 52 points that they earned in the season’s final nine races went toward their point total in the constructor standings. They ended up finishing in seventh place in the standings as opposed to fifth, which is where they would have finished had the 59 points that they earned in the first 12 races of the season been counted as a part of their point total.
Perez is set to return to Racing Point next season while Lance Stroll is set to replace Ocon, who will not compete in Formula 1 next year.
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Racing Point’s second overall season and first full season in Formula 1 is scheduled to begin with the Australian Grand Prix from Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Australia on Sunday, March 17, 2019. Be sure not to miss this race or any of the 21 races on next year’s schedule.