Venturi was left bemused by their lack of pace in Mexico after a strong start to the season for the Monegasque team.
The day started well for the team as Edoardo Mortara, ended the first free practice session fastest with Felipe Massa in P4.
However In qualifying, Mortara could only achieve P12, and Massa could only finish P21. Both positions were later upgraded to P11 and P19 courtesy of grid place penalties to Wehrlein and his team-mate Jérôme d’Ambrosio.
But the pace was not there in the race as well, as Massa’s race came to an end early after he crashed out, in turn, one and Mortara benefited from some late retirements to finish in eighth.
Speaking after the race Team Principal Susie Wolff, expressed her disappointment in the race,
“We didn’t have the performance that we expected and it’s difficult to say at this stage where our pace went from practice into the race. We weren’t on the mark today and we need to analyse what happened for Marrakesh.”
Mortara also wondered where the pace of the Venturi went in Mexico, but also explained that the team did have some issues during the race.
“We didn’t quite have the pace today and we need to understand what happened. In qualifying, we had some balance issues which meant that we couldn’t compete at the front and the race was also a struggle. We scored some points, so that’s better than nothing – but we need to analyse why we were lacking so much pace today so we can return to form in Marrakesh.”
Felipe Massa admitted that he just ran wide and hit a bump at Turn 1 which sent him into the wall.
“Unfortunately, I touched a bump in Turn 1 when I was on the throttle and it just pushed me into the wall. I’m disappointed because it was a race where a lot happened, so we could have gained a lot of positions and points.”
The team are currently sitting 8th in the championship with 24 points. ROKiT Venturi’s next race is in the Marrakesh E-Prix in just under 2 weeks where they’ll be striving for a better race.