Racing Point

**Racing Point FI Team** is a Canadian racing team that is owned by the Stroll family and serves as the feeder team of Aston Martin, which also raced under the Racing Point name until 2020 and is also owned by the Strolls. Created in 2023 following the takeover of the withdrawing Porsche team, Racing Point quickly established themselves after a poor beginning season and became the best team in the sport. The team won from 2024 to 2028 4 doubles and won their last double in 2030, thus becoming the most decorated and succesful team in Formula International with 10 combined titles, 5 drivers titles and 5 constructors titles. Also, they broke the record for most points scored by a team in 2030 and managed to finish during that year every race on the podium, courtesy of Alexandre Gagnon who had what was the best year in Formula International history and single seater racing in general. However, the team found itself in controversy in 2031 due to a money laundering scandal and since 2034, the team has been in a decline, culminating in failure to score points in 2036.

## Origins

The Racing Point name made its motorsport debut in mid-2018 in F1, when Lawrence Stroll, father of Lance Stroll, created the eponymous team following the buyout of the remnants of Force India, who went bankrupt in mid-season and was expelled from the series and stripped of their points. Racing Point raced under this name until 2020 in F1 with minimal success and in 2021 they renamed themselves Aston Martin following Stroll's investment in the British brand.

In 2023, the Stroll family, not just Lawrence himself, bought the declining Porsche team at the end of the 2022 FI season and rebranded it as Racing Point, thus signaling the return of the name after a 3 year absence. The team is managed by both Lawrence and Lance Stroll.

## 2023: A tough start

Racing Point had made a major shock in the transfer by signing 2022 FI champion Nicholas Latifi. Alongside him Lance Stroll came following inconsistent displays with Aston Martin. Despite the hype and their massive budget, the team had made a poor start due to them needing to adapt to the regulations of FI. The team finished last in the season with 21 points, 9 from Latifi, 6 from Stroll and 6 from test driver Alexandre Gagnon who replaced Latifi for a few races due to an injury.

## 2024-2030: The golden era

After the initial learning season, Racing Point became very competitive for the 2024 season and took the grid by storm, overall dominating the season and winning 11 out of the 16 races, with Latifi winning his second world title by 9 points from Stroll, who had scored one win more but lacked consistency in early season. 2025 saw their second succesive double in similar dominating fashion. While Stroll started in dominant fashion with 3 consecutive wins, it was Latifi who would beat him and win his third title and second succesive, with 261 points over Stroll's 248. In 2026, the dominant Canadian duo scored their third succesive double, with Latifi this time having no rival whatsoever and completely dominating the grid, while Stroll finished 2nd in what was a worse year than 2025.

2027 saw the team finishing third, with Stroll finishing 4th and Latifi 6th. The latter missed the last two races due to injury. Gagnon filled in and scored a win on the season finale. However, 2028 was the year where Racing Point won their fourth double, with Latifi earning his fifth and final world title, beating Nissan's Antoine Robespierre by 20 points, While Stroll finished 3rd. Latifi was then released from the team in the end of the year and Gagnon was promoted to the first team. Gagnon was very competitive for 2029 but was defeated by 14 points from arch-rival Andrei Aimansha. Stroll finished 3rd but was not a title contender anymore.

In 2030, Stroll decided to retire in order to become the team owner full-time and was replaced by Jonathan Thor, back then one of the most highly-rated prospects in the world and the first non-Canadian to race for the team. 2030 was by far the team's most succesful season and the best out of any team and driver in general. Gagnon did what was the best year of all time and managed to score 10 wins and most notably finished on the podium in every race, thus becoming the only driver in single seater history to have an 100% podium finish rate. He also broke the record for most points in an FI season, with 352 points. Thor finished second with 192 points, thus Racing Point finished first with 544 points, which is the most succesful season for any FI team. After this Racing Point became the most decorated FI team in history, with 5 driver titles and 5 team titles.

## 2031-2034: Money laundering controversy and title drought

2031 was not an easy year despite the previous success. Gagnon finished 3rd after being beaten by the emerging Saudia team and Thor struggled to make a bigger step after his good first year and finished 8th. However, the team was under controversy because it was discovered that the Stroll family had laundered money coming from dubious sources in order to fund their project, thus being penalized by FIA with a large monetary fine and stripping of the extra cash they had laundered in the previous years.

Despite this, Gagnon was competitive in 2032 and finished runner-up behind Luca Amaral. Thor on the other hand fared worse than last year and finished 9th. In 2033, Gagnon moved to Shadow and the team signed Suresh Bhandari from Geely Nio, thus having a lineup with no Canadian drivers for the first time in their history. Thor improved drastically and finished 4th while Bhandari finished behind him in 5th, but the team was unable to find their previous form and finished 3rd. The duo was kept for 2034, with Bhandari finishing 3rd and Thor 5th, thus putting the team in second in the team standings.

## 2035-2038: Decline

Thor and Bhandari were promoted to Aston Martin for 2035 and the team replaced them with prospect Justin McQueen and former Mercedes driver Santino Andreoli-Richard, who was left without a drive in FE following Ness Muller's takeover of Mercedes. Despite enjoying good previous seasons, the FIA-imposed fine had started to take its toll on the team as they fell down in the midfield. AndreoliRichard finished 11th and McQueen 14th, thus having no Racing Point drivers in the top 10 for the first time since 2023. Andreoli-Richard moved to Harvard and the team made a questionable signing by getting Alejandro Burros. 2036 was an even worse year, as McQueen was stuck in the midfield while Burros was completely a fish out of his water and scored 7 points. Somehow, Burros was kept for 2037 while Jos van Brakel came on loan from Aston Martin. 2037 was a better year for the once-dominant Racing Point, with van Brakel finishing 6th and scoring a win and Burros 10th. The duo was retained for 2038, but results worsened, with van Brakel failing to finish in the top 10 and Burros struggling in the back of the grid.

## 2039-present: Return to the front

In 2039, van Brakel was ousted from the team and Ziggy Zaggy came on loan from parent team Aston Martin. The Jamaican, who had impressed in the previous years at Mercedes, had a strong campaign and scored a win and a few podiums, finishing fourth. Burros also scored a podium, but overall struggled for consistency. Surprisingly enough, it was Burros whose loan at Racing Point was extended and not Zaggy's for 2040, and Suresh Bhandari came from Williams, reuniting with the team after 6 years. The team was tipped to battle for the title, but only scored one win from Bhandari, who finished 8th and Burros finished 9th.

## Notable Drivers

* Nicholas Latifi (2023-2028)
* Lance Stroll (2023-2029)
* Alexandre Gagnon (2023, 2027, 2029-2032)
* Jonathan Thor (2030-2034)
* Suresh Bhandari (2033-2034, 2039-present)
* Santino Andreoli-Richard (2035)
* Justin McQueen (2035-2036)
* Alejandro Burros (2036-present)
* Jos van Brakel (2037-2038)
* Ziggy Zaggy (2039)