Racing Point provided an update after investigating on Lance Stroll’s excessive graining lamented in the second half of the race at Istanbul. The Canadian driver struggled to manage the two sets of Intermediate tyres during the race, highlighting an anomalous tyre degradation following his pit stop at lap 36.

Twenty-four hours after the end of the race, the team published a thread on social media to explain the nature of the issue on car number 18. Excessive graining was apparently caused by invisible damage on the underside of Stroll’s front wing, which massively contributed to the tyre deg issues that held the 22-year-old back.

“During the team’s routine post-race car set down, we discovered damage to the underside of Stroll’s front wing that was a significant contributor to the graining issues he experienced during his 2nd and 3rd stints on the intermediate tyres at the Turkish GP”

“Lance reported poor tyre performance, significant understeer and graining from lap 17 onwards in the race. Pitting for a fresh set of intermediates on lap 36 failed to resolve the problem, with the graining becoming even more severe”.

“One of the strakes on the underside of the front wing had come loose and lodged itself in such a way that the blockage caused a significant loss of front downforce. The resultant loss of front downforce contributed to increased levels of graining”.

“Data during the race confirmed there was a significant loss of front downforce - but with no visible damage to the top side of the front wing, combined with the low-grip conditions, it was difficult to confirm whether the data was correct”.

Racing Point stressed that the issue was detected only in post-race checks, once the car returned to the garage.