Mercedes engines nevertheless appear to benefit from a ban on qualifying mode

Tension in the midfield

At the beginning of the season everyone was convinced that Racing Point would be third in the championship. The car was supposedly copied from Mercedes' 2019 car and with that the 'Pink Panthers' had taken a big step. McLaren and Renault had checked it out, but throughout the season it was getting closer and closer.

''There is no clear picture of who is better when. It varies enormously from circuit to circuit. Our car is good in the fast corners, but the competition has managed to close the gap quite well. We've improved ourselves in the slow corners with changes to the rear axle and are now focusing on medium speed corners," says Andrew Green to Auto, Motor und Sport.

Racing Point benefits from new rule

After the Eifel Grand Prix, Racing Point took over third place among the constructors from McLaren, with Renault also close by. Racing Point has 120 points, McLaren 116 and Renault 114. Where everyone thought that the disappearance of qualifying mode would be to the disadvantage of Racing Point, it turns out to be a blessing.

"That rule is very good for us, because we always had problems with it. On some circuits it did give some results, but it also caused a lot of damage to the engine, which in turn caused problems in the race. We'd have to reduce the engine completely, where we'd be able to run the whole race at higher power," concludes Racing Point's technical director.