During the post-Qualifying press conference today, Liverpool team principal Arthur Lapierre today lamented his team's relative lack of pace to Franklin today, saying the team couldn't get any more out of the package they had, in particular the Vauxhall-tuned Downton engine.
'We have to admit we don't look very good here. Adrien made a lap of the gods to get that close, and Karl was on the limit too. The positions in the classification make us concerned about the qualifying and race, then there is a lot of worry in the team about the level we are performing at, perhaps even falling behind from where we were last season. We can't fault the driver's commitment, Karl and Adrien give 100% and even more, and the chassis seems to perform well in low speed sections. But, no matter how well we build the car, the thing that holds us back is the engine. We have enjoyed working with Downton and Vauxhall until now, but we've uncovered issues with the engine compared to our rivals and even the other teams running the Downton motor. There is a saying in French - 'A qui la tête fait mal, souffre par tout le corps' - if the head is unwell, the whole body suffers. This is us now, and things need to change, we need to make our head well again. We aren't sure if the problem is in the engine itself or with the tuning and modifications made by Vauxhall, but whoever is at fault will be held responsible and replaced. DS Automobiles arrive with us for 2016 anyway of course, and for us to continue with Downton engines we need to solve our problems, otherwise we may have to consider other options including using fully in-house built Citroën DS engines.' It remains to be seen how Downton react to this public complaint from Liverpool, but it is believed that the Amesbury-based manufacturer are eager to solve any issues between themselves and the Anglo-French team as soon as possible, whether through engineering a solution or ending the deal altogether.
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