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Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll said they were “surprised” and “frustrated” by Racing Point’s disappointing qualifying performance for the Belgian Grand Prix.
At a circuit where the Racing Point team has traditionally performed well, with top-six finishes in four of the past five seasons, Perez and Stroll were only eighth-and ninth-fastest in qualifying. This was after Perez targeted a place on the front two rows following an encouraging Friday.
Perez was eighth-fastest, 1.280s off the pace, with Lance Stroll just 0.071s slower. With the fastest Racing Point just 0.319s slower than fourth-fastest Daniel Ricciardo, a place on the second row wasn’t far out of reach despite the surprising pace of the Renault.
But challenging the lead Red Bull of Max Verstappen, which Christian Horner had previously suggested was possible, was out of reach given the three-quarters of a second gap.
Stroll said “it’s a bit frustrating and we hoped for more”, while Perez suggested the team had lost performance relative to the opposition since Friday.
“We were quite surprised,” said Perez. “For some reason the pace just didn’t come and we struggled all the way through qualifying. We simply didn’t have the pace we were hoping for.
“Already in Q2, we saw on the option [medium] compound we simply didn’t have the pace and we had to change the softest one. Then Q3 was the same.”
Racing Point’s difficulties really began on Friday, where the team used up one more set of softs than the rest. As it then used another set in FP3, it was left with a maximum of four sets for qualifying.
Both drivers used two sets in Q1, committing to a second run owing to their proximity to the anticipated cut-off. They also failed to set times good enough for Q3 on mediums on the first run in Q2, meaning they had to run again on softs.
“We were a bit over-optimstic with the option [medium] tyre,” said team principal Otmar Szafnauer. “We had a plan to go into Q3 with an option to set up for the race and it looked like it was going to be marginal getting through.
“We may have been able to do it and had we been able to do that, we would have had two sets of qualifying tyres in Q3, which everyone else did.
“We ran the medium tyre and were 10th and 11th after we ran it first time, and we ran it without our engine qualifying mode too, which would have given us a boost as well, so it was marginal whether we could get through.”
In Spa qualifying it was 1.264% off the pace, not far off its 1.188% deficit in Spain two weeks ago and 1.090% at Silverstone
With just a single set of softs remaining, Racing Point opted to join the first runs in the early stages of Q3. Both drivers lost time in the chicane at the end of the lap. Perez was 0.112s slower than his best previous time through the last sector, which would have gained him a place, while Stroll was 0.270s off his personal best, which would have put him sixth had he repeated it.
Given both would have been expected to improve their final sector time in Q3 compared to Q2, it shows that locking out the third row was eminently possible – with nicking fourth place from Ricciardo possible with perfect lap.
“It was so close that two tenths moved you a significant amount unfortunately,” said Szafnauer. “A second-row lockout probably wasn’t possible today but fifth/sixth was instead of eighth/ninth had we just had another set of tyres to have another go.
“Usually the track ramps up a bit too, we had to do it on the first lap because we thought if we saved the tyres for the second run and something happens like a red flag or something then we didn’t use the tyre at all. So we went out on the first run and unfortunately others improved.
“But that’s OK, you can pass here and we’ve got a good race car beneath us, our long run pace looked pretty strong so we look forward to scoring some good points tomorrow. Starting position isn’t as significant here as it is some other places.”
While this explains why Racing Point didn’t get the most out of its potential in qualifying, there was no sign either of the expected performance boost for Spa where the team has a history of excellent showings, or the kind of performance that earned Nico Hulkenberg third on the grid in the second Silverstone race or Perez fourth last time out in Spain.
But position is only one indicator and Racing Point’s deficit to Mercedes was very similar. In Spa qualifying it was 1.264% off the pace, not far off its 1.188% deficit in Spain two weeks ago and 1.090% at Silverstone.
Racing Point was certainly disappointed by its performance and given the fundamental change to its car concept thanks to its ‘Pink Mercedes’ design, which mimics last year’s Mercedes, perhaps the set-up compromise it opted for was too biased in favour of straight speed.
While Mercedes carried a relatively high level of rear wing for Spa to give it strong pace in the middle sector without sacrificing too much straightline speed for sectors one and three, Racing Point went more extreme in terms of leaning out its car.
It was just over 3% off the pace in the middle sector, while Stroll was the outright fastest in sector one and Perez was quicker than the Mercedes in the final sector even without improving on the final attempt.
It’s possible that the approach that has made this team so successful in the past, making the car super-fast in sector one and three and compromising sector two, isn’t optimum for laptime. Renault, for example, did extract good speed with this approach but it doesn’t have the downforce levels that Racing Point has available, which changes the equation.
As the team has regularly said, this season is a steep learning curve given it has deviated from its long-standing concept and followed Mercedes. It’s possible that it hasn’t hit the Spa set-up correctly.
But the Racing Points should be in good shape for the race. Unlike Mercedes, it doesn’t have the overall pace to cover any vulnerability on the straights by charging off into the distance. This changes the necessary set-up compromise with a view to the race. Both Stroll and Perez are quick when it matters on the straights and should make up ground on Sunday, even without the advantage of starting on mediums.
“We set the car up a little bit for a normal race tomorrow and we usually err on the side of having a good race car versus a good qualifying car,” said Szafnauer. “Even if it rains, we’ll be in a good shape.
“If we can start eighth and ninth and improve our finishing position, that will be a success and I think fifth and sixth is possible.”
