On a track that was covered in just over 103 seconds today, the margin between the third best time of the day set by Lewis Hamilton and the time of leader Charles Leclerc was 66 thousandths. In the middle, surprisingly, Sergio Perez, revitalized (at least for today) by the air of the Caspian Sea. Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes in the top three positions, with Oscar Piastri fifth ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris only seventeenth. McLaren hidden? The drivers say no.
It is difficult to define hierarchies in such a context. The real protagonist on the first day of activity on the Baku circuit was the track, which was extremely slippery also due to the organizers’ decision to forgo washing the asphalt with high-pressure water as in previous editions. “A small blockage was enough to hit the wall”, commented Verstappen, and Leclerc confirmed this in FP1, ending up against the barriers at turn 15.
Max Verstappen seems more reassured than in Monza: Red Bull is working
There is however someone who has found a very positive signal in the balance of values on the field, and that is Red Bull. On Friday in Baku, Perez was shown who had not been seen for many months, back to being at ease with the single-seater. His history in Baku is very positive, but it was not a given to find Checo immediately at the top after a struggling summer.
Red Bull did their part (bringing a modified diffuser to the track) and Verstappen only complained about a bit of understeer that Max himself defined as a solvable problem. For now, nothing to do with the Monza weekend, the Red Bull seen today seems capable of aiming high.
“We are more competitive,” Verstappen admitted, “a lot of work has been done behind the scenes and I’m happy to see the steps forward. FP2 was a bit more difficult for me, but it’s just about finding a bit more balance, I’m quite confident that we can be competitive.”
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Norris, the most anticipated man on the eve of the weekend, had to abort his qualifying simulation due to a misunderstanding with Gasly, but Lando’s problem is not so much the time missing from the day’s standings. “It wasn’t Pierre’s fault,” he explained, “he just misjudged. I had already done my lap, it was just the final straight.” Norris is worried about the overall performance of the car, a fear that seems to be confirmed by Piastri’s simulation, fifth, half a second from the top-3.
“Given how we’ve been going, I think that if we improve we could get to the times set today by the leaders, but I expect that they will also make some progress,” commented Lando. “Let’s say that we have a lot to find compared to Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, who from what we’ve seen are all very close. There are those who believe that we are the best on every track, but that’s not the case, on many occasions we have done a better job than other teams, but we knew that on this track Mercedes and Ferrari are very fast. Then the track is very different to last year, and as far as we’re concerned this aspect is complicating things a bit. We’ll work hard tonight, I’m sure we can improve, but we’re certainly not as clearly ahead as in the last races.”
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Smiles, however, at Mercedes despite a warning to Russell’s power unit that forced the team to replace him (with an older PU) with a tour de force between the two practice sessions. George missed the first half of FP2, but still managed to complete sixteen laps, mostly with high fuel load.
The feedback came from Hamilton, who seemed very satisfied at the end of FP2. “Yes, I confirm – Lewis commented – it was a really good day. I made some steps forward with the set-up, for once I had the feeling of not having to go back and start again. Red Bull and Ferrari seem quite fast, but we are there too”.
#McLaren #pretactics #Ferrari #Mercedes #form #Red #Bull #growing
