SportPesa Racing Point monitoring Schumacher and Latifi for future seats

SportPesa Racing Point boss Otmar Szafnauer has said that they are keeping an eye on drivers such as Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi for possible seats in the future.

Racing Point’s current drivers are no doubt their drivers for the next few years at least, with Sergio Perez signing a contract his year keeping him there until at least the end of 2022, while Lance Stroll’s father Lawrence Stroll owns the team.
 
But that doesn’t stop Szafnauer from keeping track of the progress of those around for future reference, despite Schumacher being a Ferrari development driving and Latifi, who was reserve driver for Force India in 2018, tipped to step up from the reserve role and take Robert Kubica's seat at Williams for 2020.

“We have quite a few drivers in mind,” Szafnauer said to Speedweek.com.

“We look at how they beat each other in the junior series. We even wrote an analysis program in which we record all the results. Well, that does not allow a perfect judgment, but it’s a guide.

“Everyone in the Formula 1 is watching attentively what Mick Schumacher is doing.

“There are some pretty good guys. We also had Nicholas Latifi in our car.”

With a future star in mind Szafnauer still has confidence in 21-year old Stroll’s ability behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car but says there are still areas to be worked on.

Stroll is still only 21 years of age, and Szafnauer is happy with his development, but admits that tyre management is an area for improvement.

“Lance Stroll is a smart guy, still very young. His starts really are a show,” he added.

“But he is still learning, especially in tyre management. He had bad luck a few times.

“He usually starts well, as I said, but then two opponents get in front of him and he runs out of pace.”