McLaren had comfortably kept Racing Point at bay in 2019 when they finished fourth in the constructors’ championship, 72 points ahead of their pink rivals. However, Carlos Sainz has admitted that 2020 could be a bumpier ride for his team after Racing Point’s Sergio Perez finished third in the Free Practice 2 for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Perez finished after both the Red Bulls and the Ferraris after the qualification simulations of the FP2. And while the Mexican’s best lap in the session was only 0.142 seconds faster than McLaren’s fastest (Lando Norris’ P6 attempt), Sainz sensed Racing Point’s pace – with an RP20 that other midfield teams had because of its remarkable similarity to the Mercedes criticized last year – had been threatening.
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“Racing Point was particularly quick today,” said Sainz. “We expected them to be fast, but in such a short space of time it is particularly impressive to have the advantage they had over the rest of the midfield. My opinion is that they are too far away to fight them. But at least Renault, we want to be in the stadium with them, so it will still be a lot of fun. “
Carlos Sainz: “I felt we were on the right track.”
Norris confirmed his teammate’s stance and indicated that McLaren’s fight this weekend would be more with Renault than with Racing Point.
“[Racing Point are] sure a bit ahead of us, ”he said. “I don’t think we look at them too much in terms of our pace. The rest of the midfield is difficult to say as Red Bull and Ferrari don’t seem to be as fast as last year here.
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“I think we have taken a step forward and the entire midfield has taken a step forward, so it will be interesting. I think tomorrow everyone will crank up and cut fuel consumption and everything so that we can see, but I think we will focus only on ourselves for now, trying to explore the car and find out new information. “
Lando Norris: “One of the difficult things is getting back on your lap.”
Despite McLaren’s resignation from Racing Point’s pace, both Sainz and Norris seemed satisfied with their MCL35 package, and Norris confirmed, “I think we’re pretty confident. Of course there are things to improve, but I think our pace today is roughly where we are.
“No major complaints, but there are smaller things. Nothing stops us for half a second or so, but it really focuses on the smaller parts, putting everything together – I think that’s one of the difficult things, nail your lap again just because I was a bit rusted to make sure get all these thousandths out of the car. “
