Racing Point puzzled by 'strange' Ferrari disparity

Racing Point technical director Andy Green admits to being puzzled by Ferrari's qualifying pace of late relative to the Italian outfit's performance on Sundays.

Charles Leclerc qualified fifth at the Tuscany GP and lined up fourth on the grid at the Eifel GP, the Scuderia's best result since last summer's British GP.

But come race day, the Italian outfit falls down the running order while Racing Point almost always improves in race trim on its relative pace in qualifying.

"There is definitely something to look at in the way that other teams seem to be able to find pace in qualifying on a Saturday afternoon that we don’t seem to have," said Green.

"A good example of that is Ferrari. I don’t know where they get their pace from on a Saturday afternoon. But on Sunday, they’re a good half a second behind us, which is very strange.

"It’s something that we definitely are looking at and I think it’s true. It’s always going to be a lot closer on a Saturday afternoon anyway, just because of the way things are.

"But we do seem to move forward on a Sunday afternoon."

• Read also: Racing Point needs 'normal races and a bit of luck'

Green believes Racing Point's relative strength on Sundays is partly rooted in the team's efficient tyre management.

"It’s just the way you’re using the tyres," he said. "I think that’s where we focus on, that we’re getting the best out of our tyres on Sunday afternoon and not abusing one end of the car or the other just to get a good balance for a Saturday afternoon.

"If that balance isn’t right there on a Saturday afternoon, we won’t go chasing it at the expense of ruining our Sunday afternoon.

"I’m sure other teams to do the same, but there seems to be a bit more than that. We’re missing something else on a Sunday afternoon, which is something we’ll have a look at."

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