The first day of free practice ended with the best time of Lewis Hamilton ahead of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris, with the surprise Pierre Gasly in fourth position. It is undoubtedly not the first time that a Mercedes has finished in the lead on Friday, always leaving doubt as to what the true potential of the W15 is and the power used.
Helmut Marko started precisely from this theme in his classic analysis on Friday, according to which Red Bull, as often seen during this championship, used less power with more conservative mappings than its opponents.
A theme that has been highlighted in an even more important way this year and preserving the various units is undoubtedly fundamental, especially considering that, even if they can then be reused in the rest of the championship, Max Verstappen has already reached his fourth Power Unit mounted today .
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“Of course the engine is saved and we also have enough experience. Max knows what the engine will bring him at full power and he doesn’t need to get used to it, so it makes sense to save the engine,” Marko explained when asked why Red Bull tends to run so conservatively on the maps in free practice.
Looking at the telemetry, however, to tell the truth, Verstappen’s references in the straight line are higher than those of Hamilton, with differences that at times even reach 7 km/h in favor of the Dutchman. However, beyond the topic of mapping, Marko and the three-time world champion concentrated their focus above all on the balance of the RB20.
During free practice, on several occasions Verstappen reported a less than ideal balance, with accentuated understeer in the center of corners and marked oversteer when exiting corners, which he suffered especially during traction in the second sector.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“We tried some different setups in FP1 and FP2. Now we’re just trying to fine-tune a few things, but at least the day was a little calmer, without any major problems. It was what we hoped for. Now it’s just a matter of trying to fine-tune the car a bit, but it’s quite a normal situation,” said Verstappen, before adding that the updates brought to Barcelona are only small details along the car.
Marko gave some more details, underlining how the Milton Keynes team has clearly not yet found the desired balance for the car. The idea was also to use a lighter rear wing during FP2 to try something different, but it would have taken more time to replace it, given that we need to work on the endplate attachments in the lower part.
Also for this reason it was decided to continue working with the weakest wing of those available, but behind this choice there are also other reasons, including the fact that the engineers are already working with a view to qualifying and the race, when the the track will be more rubberized giving greater grip. However, they will be choices to be weighed up during the night, perhaps sacrificing something in terms of top speed to find other strengths.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
On Friday the RB20 proved to be very competitive in the fastest corners, but paid the price above all in the medium speed corners of the second sector, where the more “slippery” rear affected the performance.
“We still haven’t found the balance we expected. I think the solution would have been a different rear wing, but it takes twenty minutes to change it. We didn’t. Max wanted a different front and rear wing, but we already have to think about Sunday. The grip levels will be different and Max already has enough experience to have an idea and feel of what it will be like. The setup needs to go in that direction for the race. We didn’t use all the power, so it’s not that alarming. The long runs went well.”
Compared to other events, in which Verstappen had highlighted the difficulties in finding the setup, on this occasion Red Bull feels more serene: “Yes, this time it’s going much better. Now we are not as far away as in the Monaco and Imola races. In general we haven’t found the best balance yet though. We also know that Max doesn’t feel very comfortable when he doesn’t have a strong front end, of course,” added Marko.
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