All three Ferrari entries struggled for outright pace during Round 2 of GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS.
It had been clear throughout practice and qualifying that Mercedes and Audi would each have the fastest cars on the 4.95km international layout at The Bend.
Zagame Autosport’s Josh Buchan was the fastest Pro driver in a Ferrari during qualifying at The Bend in eighth, 1.0200s off the pace of the pole position-winning Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Jayden Ojeda.
Evans, meanwhile, was only 10th and 1.0711s away from Ojeda while Will Davison was 1.5529s away in 12th.
The Balance of Performance is set by SRO Motorsports, which owns, operates, and promotes the GT World Challenge moniker globally.
Tests, research, and analysis, taking into account results, determine certain adjustable parameters on each car.
These include, but are not limited to, minimum weight, minimum ride height, engine restrictors, wing positions, boost pressure, ballast, and camber – all with the view of equalling performance across makes and models.
Ahead of Round 3 at Queensland Raceway, Evans remained unsure if the BOP will change in Ferrari’s favour.
“It’s always difficult to know if the BOP is going to get a change, especially with all the other races happening around the world. They’re looking at results and what cars are performing where and things like that,” Evans told Speedcafe.
“But, I think even when the competitors that you’re racing against at Tailem Bend are saying that the car probably isn’t where it needs to be, it’s a pretty obvious picture.
“So, hopefully something’s done there, but we’ll continue to just keep working hard and maximise our package.”
Evans confirmed ahead of Race 1 at The Bend that Ferrari had received a slight BOP tweak to bring it closer to the German marques.
“It’s been challenging, obviously there’s no hiding from that,” Evans told Greg Rust on the broadcast.
“[In] practice yesterday we could sort of see that we weren’t quite as fast as the cars around us, but qualifying really proved that.
“We maximised our package and we were still a fair way off the pace.
“We received a bit of a BOP break for this race [Race 1], so hopefully that helps us.”
Schutte and Evans combined to finish Race 1 on the final step of the podium, backing that performance up with a fifth place on Sunday, almost mirroring their round one result of fifth and second at Phillip Island.
Mercedes-AMG team Tigani Motorsport won both races at The Bend, beginning with Brendon Leitch and Sergio Pires on Saturday and concluding with Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti on Sunday.
Evans remained confident that the team will continue its efforts heading into Round 3.
“The team are doing a great job, and I thought, considering where we were on Friday at The Bend, to come away with two top five finishes and one on the podium is, I guess, not a surprise, but it was a good reward for all our effort,” Evans said.
“It’s not as simple as just driving around with what you’ve got.
“You can think outside the box and try some things that you probably wouldn’t normally do if the car was a little bit faster.”
The ARGT pair combined for a third and fifth place finish at Queensland Raceway in 2025, and Evans said he held confidence that he and Schutte can extract more speed this year.
“QR, it’s probably not the best GT track in the world, but we’ll see if we can make our thing work a bit better there,” Evans said.
“I’m confident that driving alongside Elliott [Schutte], who’s doing a fantastic job, and working with the team, we can have some good results.”
GT World Challenge Australia returns at Queensland Raceway on June 12-14 as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries.
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