Why Racing Bulls have ‘mixed feelings’ despite double points finish in Barcelona

On paper, Racing Bulls had a great weekend in Barcelona-Catalunya, with both drivers scoring points as they continue their pursuit of Alpine in the Constructors’ Championship.

The team are 16 points behind their rivals in the battle for fifth place, but are riding high after two double point scores in the last two Grands Prix. Liam Lawson came home eighth in Sunday and Arvid Lindblad ninth – and yet their Team Principal Alan Permane admitted to having “mixed feelings” afterwards.

So, what went right for Racing Bulls – and what went wrong?

Luck doesn’t fall for the team on strategy

Lawson started the race well and was running inside the top 10, ahead of rival Pierre Gasly. But the Frenchman got a cheap pit stop under the Virtual Saftey Car, and that allowed him to jump ahead of Lawson.

Franco Colapinto also managed to jump both Lawson and Lindblad, so they lost out to both Alpines on the road and were fortunate that the Argentine racer picked up a penalty, which dropped him from P8 to P10.

That was a net gain of three points for Racing Bulls – although Gasly’s podium reinstatement from Monaco meant Alpine picked up a bigger haul of points from that weekend, and remain comfortably in front in the standings.

"There are mixed feelings following today's race in Barcelona. After a strong weekend, it felt as though we retreated a little bit in the race,” Permane explained.

“The Alpines definitely had the measure of us today, but it also demonstrates that our ambitions and expectations are higher than what we achieved. We were a long way off the pace of Alpine back in Miami, which also had some high-speed corners, so we've made a big jump since then.”

Lindblad also left to rue misfortune

Lindblad was the pick of the two Racing Bulls drivers in practice, finishing the three sessions in ninth, seventh and P10. Lawson was seventh in FP1, but then faded to 13th and 12th – but crucially both cars were ahead of both Alpines in every session.

But come Qualifying, Lindblad suffered a lack of deployment on his final run in Q2, and could not make the top 10 shootout – something the team immediately apologised for over the radio. Their blushes were saved by Lawson, who made it into Q3 for the second straight race.

As such, Lindblad wound up starting 11th but was still very much in the mix, despite running the longest first stint of anyone at a track where the undercut was powerful.

He called it a “decent day,” but did admit the race was not entirely smooth:

"We'll regroup with the team and see what things we could have executed better, as we lost some time during the race. We were fast during the second and third stints, but coming from so far back meant that it was more of a catch-up game opposed to really being able to utilise our pace to gain positions.

“Regardless, the team has given us a strong package, which I'm happy with. After the last few weekends where we raced in unique circuits, it’s been nice to show strong pace also here in Barcelona, which is more of a standard high-speed track.

“Hopefully, this means the car will be well-suited for upcoming tracks, starting with getting back to racing at the Red Bull Ring in two weeks."

Lawson on his ‘difficult’ race

Lawson has scored in five of the seven Grands Prix so far this season, and in one Sprint. He looks back to his best after a tricky time of it last season, where he was demoted from Red Bull after just two races.

Coming home eighth is a strong result in a congested midfield, but the Kiwi racer – like his boss – was not overly enamoured with how his Sunday went.

"It was a difficult race today. We came into it expecting to be more competitive, but unfortunately we struggled for pace compared to the cars around us,” he explained.

“We were also unlucky with the VSC, which allowed Gasly to pit and come out ahead of us, making our race even more challenging. We’ll go away, review everything and look at what we could have done better to maximise the result.

“Despite today’s result, there are still plenty of positives to take away. We’ve shown strong pace throughout the weekend, and the season so far has been encouraging.”

Austria is the next race for Racing Bulls to contend with, and they will certainly want to impress at what is often considered a ‘home’ race for the team given their Red Bull links.