Pink Bull boss Laurent Mekies has expressed uncertainty over the place the group stands heading into the second half of the System 1 season following a difficult Dutch GP.
The Austrian outfit lagged behind Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari on the first race again after the summer season break, with each Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson (stepping in for an injured Isack Hadjar) largely unable to hassle the highest three groups.
An early exit for Verstappen in Sunday’s Grand Prix additional soured the weekend for Pink Bull. The four-time world champion misplaced the rear of his automobile on lap one and crashed closely into the wall, leaving Lawson because the group’s sole competitor. The New Zealand driver completed the race in seventh place, greater than a minute behind the highest three drivers.
Mekies: Pink Bull took “a step again” over the summer season break
Mekies issued a damning evaluation of the group’s outcome after the race, noting that there appeared to have been a regression in efficiency.
“Efficiency-wise, there’s nowhere to cover,” he stated. “It was a really tough weekend.
“It looks like now we have made a little bit of a step again in comparison with the place we had been earlier than the summer season break.
“After all, we’ll by no means know what the actual tempo of the automobile within the race would have been with Max, however it’s truthful to say that session after session, it seemed tougher than it was in Budapest or in Spa or in Austria, so some powerful work for us to do to regroup and to see whether it is merely the competitors that has finished a greater job than us at upgrading the automobile, or if one thing has been limiting us greater than it ought to have been in Zandvoort.
“In order that shall be for us the subsequent two weeks earlier than we struggle again in Monza all collectively.”
It’s anticipated that Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli will take an influence unit change – and subsequently a grid penalty – on the subsequent race in Monza, which may work in Pink Bull’s favour. Nonetheless, with many extra alternatives to overhaul on the Italian observe in contrast with Zandvoort, the profit to Pink Bull may not be as important as anticipated.
“Crucial factor is that Max is okay,” Mekies stated of Verstappen’s lap one incident.
“It was a reasonably large shunt, and we’re all glad to see that he’s out of the automobile, unhurt, and that’s what issues probably the most.”
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