On Saturday, albeit in difficult conditions, the impressive practice pace shown by Racing Point deserted the Silverstone-based outfit in qualifying, and as a result Sergio Perez failed to make it past Q1 and his teammate beyond Q2.

Despite a "messy" end to the race, which saw both drivers lose positions following some clumsy manoeuvres, the team scored its first double points finish of the year.

Though Renault subsequently lodged a protest which saw the stewards impound a number of components, rivals fear that Racing Point will only get stronger in the coming months.

Indeed, team boss, Otmar Szafnauer warns that the best is yet to come.

"There might be some circuits that suit us a little bit better than this one did, and we will be closer," he said. "How much? I don't know. It's really hard to tell.

"I'm just happy that the race pace is good," he added. "But there is still some learning to do and we still haven't optimised the race weekend."

Szafnauer admits that the team is still learning about the car, especially in terms of set-up.

"It takes time," he says. "You've got to do experiments... I remember years back when I was at Honda, there came a point in time in the latter half of the season, where suddenly you turned your focus on the following year and you were bringing no updates to the car. Eventually, with four, five or six races in a row with no updates, you learn more and you still went quicker, so that even happens in a mature car when you're not changing.

"With us, there's still a lot more to learn and do," he admits. "You do it through experience and experiments. The more Fridays we get in, the more we'll learn about the setup."

Referring to Saturday's disappointment, he said: "If you don't get the wet tyres working because they're not in the window, you're going to struggle.

"It's what happened to us for a variety of reasons and we know what those reasons are. Were we to go into a wet qualifying tomorrow with the knowledge that we gained on Saturday it will be a different story."