Verschoor 'maximises' F2 weekend Spa with P3 and P5

Article Motorsport.com by Mike Mulder – After the F2 weekend in Spa-Francorchamps, Richard Verschoor goes into the summer break with a reasonable feeling, but a lot of homework. The Trident driver finished P3 on Saturday and was fifth in the feature race on Sunday.

Richard Verschoor had traveled to the Belgian Ardennes with mixed feelings. Last race weekend in Hungary, he was denied a victory in the sprint race after a technical disqualification. The floorboard of his car turned out to be too thin. Verschoor pulled himself together and responded on Sunday, in the Hungarian feature race, with a third place.

A new podium followed during the race weekend in Spa-Francorchamps, in the Belgian sprint race. That race was moved to the early evening on Saturday afternoon due to rain, but was then drastically shortened due to the falling darkness. Third place earned Verschoor only half a point (three points). On Sunday, the Dutchman started from eighth place. In a sunny race he eventually managed to make up three places and ended the first half of the season with a fifth place. It earned him another ten points and thirteenth place in the standings.

All in all, the sun seems to be shining again for the Trident driver. Immediately after the race, he indicated in conversation with Motorsport.com that he had 'maximized' at Spa-Francorchamps. "I'm actually very happy with that," said Verschoor in the Spa support paddock. "That is of course also something you have to do, even if you have a bad weekend. However, what you can see is that we are not good enough in terms of pace." Verschoor points out, among other things, the enormous gap between him and the top of the field. "Numbers one and two finished twenty seconds ahead of me, while we were quite good in terms of strategy, so that has to be better." Yet he sees bright spots. "We are slowly moving in the right direction again, but of course I want much more."

"There is not necessarily anything missing in the race pace itself, but more in the performance of the car," Verschoor explains when asked. "I had a really good lap in qualifying, but I just can't lose nine-tenths of a second in sector two. That's just not possible at this level. It's a new car and a new floor. I'm losing grip, downforce and we just need to better understand how that works.”