Non Starters At This Level?
Looking back at Sundays British Grand Prix I am still in shock that Racing Point only had one car racing. The other car being driven by stand in driver Nico Hulkenberg was stuck in the garage.
We have seen other teams have to rebuild cars within shorter time frames when drivers have crashed just before qualifying. Just the other day one of the teams managed a rebuild withing 48 minutes or something crazy. I am struggling to recall a car that didn't start at least on the grid or from the pit lane.
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Looking busy for the camera, but more like headless chickens. They had plenty of time unless they all slept in on Sunday morning.
Racing Point are one of the smaller teams on the grid and I think this still shows the difference between a top team like Mercedes and a Racing Point. Toto Wolff would never allow this to happen as he has the Mercedes name to protect. They obviously have an elite team who know exactly what to do and can fix anything.
The chief engineer of racing point was unsure why the car wouldn't start as he mentioned either gear box or a power unit failure. If that happened in the Mercedes garage the power unit would be replaced in record time and there would be no time wasting and messing around.
At one point there was always a spare car on standby and have no idea why Racing Point never had one available. I would guess it wasn't the power unit at all and more likely the gear box as Mercedes give them mechanics to make sure these issues don't arise. Part of the package of supplying engines is to offer technical support.
Racing Point has been nicknamed the Pink Arrows after the Mercedes Silver Arrows as they have basically a one year old Mercedes plus the latest engine. Renault believes they have even copied something with the brake ducts going as far as appealing after every race. This has to be done as if found true then they lose the points earned due to an appeal. Renault believes they are exactly the same specifications as Mercedes and nothing is different. Teams have to make some of their own parts and can't just buy in or copy as they wish.
At the time I thought maybe the mechanics didn't want to get the car going as it is normally Perez's car and he is out due to testing positive for Covid. Imagine Hulkenberg landing two podiums in consecutive races which was possible even though he has been out of racing for 9 months or longer.
Perez has to do a minimum 10 day quarantine which should rule him out of this Sundays second British Grand Prix. Hulkenberg says he has to wait and see so that tells me they are now trying to pull the strings and show he is suddenly well again. It would be a joke if Perez was allowed to race this week as that would make it 9 days as he would have to qualify. Surely getting Hulkenberg ready for Sunday should be the teams priority as it is the teams points at stake and not the individual.
There has been talk about Vettel coming to Racing Point/ Aston Martin next season. Vettel took his chief mechanic and race engineer from Red Bull to Ferrari so I hope he does the same thing if he does move. I just see amateurish thinking when one looks outside the top 3 teams maybe 4 if we include McLaren as they have got their act together.