Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies says the delay to the start of the Belgian Grand Prix surprised the team after it opted for a wet weather setup on its cars.
Max Verstappen won the Sprint on Saturday with a low downforce setup, making use of high top speed in dry conditions. With rain forecast for Sunday, Red Bull then changed its approach in qualifying based on the weather, but 90 minutes passed between the original attempt to start the race and then finally racing on a drying track, with nobody doing more than ten racing laps on the intermediates before switching to slicks.
“I think we are all surprised by how late we have started the race,” Mekies said. “I’m sure the FIA had its own considerations, but certainly for us as a team it surprised us, because fundamentally we waited not only for the rain to stop, but also for pretty much the sun to come out, and then we still had many laps behind the safety car.
“So, again, I’m sure the FIA had its own reasons. In our specific case, having biased our cars towards the rain, for sure it’s costing us performance. But it’s part of the game.”
Mekies pointed out how difficult overtaking proved in dry conditions throughout the weekend as showing the opposite set-up approach was required to be able to make progress, as Max Verstappen was limited to fourth place behind Charles Leclerc.
“Obviously, the fact that we got so little wet running didn’t help. It’s something that we had made quite heavy choices, thinking about a wet race. In the end, the rain came, but we didn’t get many great racing [laps]. So, for sure, it has an influence on the race, it’s part of the game.
“I think, on the dries, there was very little possibility to overtake. At the end of the day, Max has spent every second lap in Charles’ gearbox. I don’t think, on the dries, we have seen many overtaking moves at this race. And, with our choices on downforce, it would have been unlikely that we would have been able to pass them in the dry.
“So, it is what it is. You start fourth, get beaten by three thousandths of a second by Charles [in qualifying], and finish fourth.”
The dry running also hurt Yuki Tsunoda’s chances of scoring points, after Mekies admitted a team error cost him his place in the top ten and he was unable to regain those positions.
“So, for Yuki, it was our mistake. We wanted to pit him on the same lap as Max, and everything was ready, the crew was out, everything was ready to get both cars, and we simply called him too late. So it’s on us, unfortunately, and one lap made a big difference, so he lost, I think, three or four positions, which ultimately stopped his fight for the points.”
