Permane believes Racing Point still the fastest in the midfield

The battle for the title is not so exciting this season, but the midfield is still providing plenty of drama. The battle for third place in the constructors' championship, in particular, is incredibly competitive.

With two podium finishes in three of the last races, Renault have taken over third position in the championship with 135 points. Both McLaren and Racing Point are now just behind with 134 points. Although Renault seems to have the momentum, their sports director Alan Permane guesses that Racing Point still has the best car.

"Unfortunately, the pink car is the quickest of the three," said Permane to RaceFans.net. 

"If you look at their pace, if you look at Checo in Portimao where he came back through the field, his pace was just incredible. Had he not gone off, he would have been a long way up."

It will depend on reliability

At the Nürburgring, on the other hand, Permane thinks they had the better car. Perez came close to Ricciardo here in the final phase, but according to Permane that would not have happened if they had opted for a better strategy.

"So I think it’s a little bit circuit-dependent. And I think a comment Daniel made a couple of weeks ago that it’ll come down to reliability, that is also key to it and we’ve got to get both cars in the points every week," concluded Permane.