Mekis: Everyone was surprised by the late start of the race.

      The new Red Bull team principal, Laurent Mekies, was surprised by FIA race director Rui Markes' decision to delay the start at Spa by 80 minutes – in the end, the race took place on drying and dry asphalt, while Red Bull was setting up their cars for rain...

      Laurent Mekies: "Everyone was surprised that the race started so late on Sunday. I'm sure FIA had their reasons, but for our team, it was unexpected.

      Basically, they were waiting not only for the rain to stop but also for the sun to appear, and then the drivers completed a few laps behind the safety car. Again, FIA probably had their reasons, but in our particular case, since we set up the car for rain, it cost us some competitiveness.

      When setting up the car, we made quite radical decisions, counting on a rainy race. It did rain, but we didn't race in the rain, only on the drying track. Of course, this affected the result. With our chosen settings and aerodynamic package, overtaking on dry asphalt was impossible. But that's what we had."