If I’m not wrong, he had the pace to do it but the team told him to slow down as they suspected a relatability issue. And realistically he had only one chance to pass VER after the yellow flag. Turned out later that the car was OK…
But yeah since then they had 12 months going into a wrong direction. Now they should have had enough time to bring something good for Ausitn.
And BTW Newey still had 0 influence on car set-ups or upgrade as someone suggested…