The Woking-based group, which is currently third in the constructors’ championship, won the Formula 1 Final harmonization deadline for major part changes by racing its nose similar to Mercedes in the Russian Grand Prix.

Although the nose itself did not provide a clear step forward in speed alone, team manager Andreas Seidel believes that the different air direction that the new design will allow him to follow should help unleash a faster speed than his current car.

“With the history of homogenization in the middle of the season, it was clear that we wanted to gain experience as quickly as possible,” said Seidel when asked by Motorsport.com about the concept of the new nose.

“This is why we decided to also test it step-by-step as soon as certain parts of this package are available. So, the goal is clear: This is the direction of development we’ve seen in the wind tunnel with this different nose concept. It’s something we think is the right direction to head in in the future.”

“This gives us more potential, in terms of unlocking more potential from the car in terms of performance. This is the direction we’re heading in.

“So the plan now is to gradually bring more parts of this package back on the right track, with a clear goal of unlocking more performance.”

McLaren still believes Racing Point has the third fastest car at the moment, with Renault also making some strong progress since the Belgian Grand Prix.

The proximity to the midfield fight left no illusions that McLaren would need to ramp up his push for promotion if he did not lose to his main rivals in that battle for third place overall.

“In terms of pure car potential, I think Racing Point is similar to what it has been on average since the Barcelona test, in that it is clearly the fastest car in this battle,” Seidel said.

“Renault clearly has also taken a good step forward since Spa. At the same time, we have always been fighting them closely in races, either ahead of them or in mixtures in the qualifying sessions.

“We realized that they took a good step forward, and it is now up to us to make sure we also go ahead in our car and find the next step in terms of speed if we want to keep this battle alive.

“It is important to analyze what happened [in Russia], Also analyze in detail what this new nose box front has done on the Lando. So it is important to reach the right conclusions and introduce upgrades to keep this battle alive. “

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