Why Verstappen Racing's GTWC EU Portimao Qualifying unraveled - Can they turn it around?
Verstappen Racing had a disappointing qualifying session in the GT World Challenge Europe (GTWC) season finale at Portimao, with the team's No.3 Mercedes set to start from 14th place. But how did it happen and can the team turn things around come the race?
Anticipation was extremely high for Max Verstappen's GTWC EU debut at Portimao, with early indications good for his eponymous team's No.3 Mercedes car.
After a productive official paid test session, where the team focused on data gathering, general preparation, such as practicing the driver-swaps, came a relatively pedestrian Free Practice 1, where Max Verstappen got more and more time with the car and the track, reportedly happy with the car in general, despite the headline times finding his team in 20th.
In fact most eyes were on Verstappen's clash with the No.25 Sainteloc Racing Audi of Ezequiel Perez Companc, with the Dutchman escaping any serious punishment from the stewards for the incident.
Then came Free Practice 2, which the No.3 Mercedes ended in fourth overall. With Qualifying coming up, eyes were firmly set on the Red Bull-branded car, with the expectation of seeing Max and teammates Chris Lulham and Ben Barnicoat, fight for pole position.
However they ultimately never were in the fight from the off. Q1 ended with Barnicoat mired down in 21st overall, seven tenths off pace-setter Morris Schuring's No.2 Boutsen VDS Porsche. From there onwards things were bound to be tough to recover from, in GTWC's combined qualifying averages format.
Lulham was next, but could not manage any better, ending Q2 eight tenths away from the session's best time, that of Dorian Boccolacci's in -again- the No.2 Porsche, despite finishing it in a higher place, that being 16th, and other team's efforts meaning the No.3 car was now higher up in the combined table as well.
Finally it was Verstappen's turn and the Mercedes' struggles became evident with the live coverage fixed on his timed laps. The car was suffering from excessive bouncing and heavy-spaking, as the ride-height appeared to be set too low.
This can be assesed more clearly be comparing the onboards of the No.3 Mercedes and the No.93 Ziggo Tempesta Porsche, both available on the GT World YouTube channel.
This main issue of course led to understeer on corner entries, that turned to oversteer on exits, with the drivers having to fight the car's snapping tendencies at certain corners, like the hairpins and turns 11, 14 and 15. This compares unfavorably to the much more stable Porsche when viewed side to side.
Verstappen tried his best, as did his teammates before him and in fact he got closer to the pace-setting car, in that case it being the No.71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari of Simon Birch.
He would end Q3 in 13th, four tenths off the Ferrari's benchmark, a result that saw the No.3 go up to 15th in the combined qualifying results, before the No.65 HRT Ford's times were all deleted due to the Mustang's data logger not being connected, elevated the Mercedes to 14th.
Commenting after the end of his session, Ben Barnicoat admitted to the team's failed setup changes. “It was a tough session. We felt like we have been missing a little bit of speed. None of us have been super happy, so we tried a couple of things and obviously it just didn't quite work out. We had a lot of bouncing in the straights, so I think we just missed it a little bit”.
Although the specifics of the setup are not publicly available at the time of writing, it is reasonable to suspect that the team struggled to find the correct aerodynamic platform and suspension settings. An excessively low front ride height, potentially compounded by unsuitable spring or damper settings and an incorrect rake angle, could explain why the front splitter repeatedly struck the track surface.
The car's pronounced bouncing along the straights also suggests that its vertical platform control was compromised, although the precise cause cannot be established from the available evidence alone.
Another potential issue could have been the car's balance, perhaps altered by Balance of Performance changes that happened inbetween FP2 and Qualifying, with all Mercedes cars receiving a weight break of five kilos.
Any combination of these issues is plausible, and it made for the drivers consistently losing valuable time to their rivals, especially on sectors two and three.
The good thing is that -unlike Formula One- the team can actually change their setup, as parc fermé conditions are only in effect until the post-qualifying techincal inspections is over.
Of course the aforementioned BoP regulates aerodynamic efficiency so there is not 100% complete technical freedom, but the team can still ''reverse the damage''.
Barnicoat himself appeared optimistic, telling the media: ''“It’s a three-hour race, we are all going to do our best. It is never over until it’s over in these endurance races. We have got a great lineup, a great team. I still believe we can do it tomorrow.''
''Max has been strong and Chris has been strong, so I am sure we will be okay come tomorrow. We just got it a little bit wrong today, but we know what we did, and we know how to make it better. We are going to go to business tomorrow and try to get to the front.”
"The team have been up front the whole time and they're obviously fresh off a podium at Nürburgring last time with Dani, Jules and Chris. We know we're capable of it'', concluded the 29-year-old.
A similar sentiment was shared by Verstappen's compatriot, Morris Schuring, a part of the No.2 Boutsen VDS Porsche that took pole. Schuring admitted that he expected the No.3 Mercedes ''to be a little further up the grid''.
''It looks like they might have had some problems, because it's certainly not down to the drivers - all three of them are fantastic, including Max himself. I'm sure they'll find their way forward tomorrow. Hopefully it takes them long enough that we can stay in front until the finish! You never know what can happen: safety cars, strategy, everything can come into play. We're keeping our feet on the ground and look ahead to race day tomorrow", he concluded.
Clearly Verstappen Racing are not out of the picture for Saturday's three-hour race, despite the team ''taking the wrong corner'' for Qualifying. As Schuring said ''everything can come into play'' and in a season that we saw Lionspeed GP coming back from last place to win in the Spa 24 Hour race, no car can be easily ruled out.
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