Among the many free practice sessions we have commented on, we have rarely seen a such a marked balance on many fronts. The second free practice session of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix certainly didn’t help to clear up doubts about who is the favourite or what the odds are hierarchies on the track. Indeed, if possible, it has increased them. The Azerbaijani track is perhaps not very selective from an aerodynamic point of view, with its curves all short and almost all equal at 90 degrees. This means that the balance is easier to find for teams, and that those who have stability or load level problems can still find competitive compromises, ending up with flatten competitiveness general upwards, with 4 teams showing so far Potential winning cards.
Red Bull Down But Close: Best Friday in at Least 6 Races
Starting from the Red Bull the first thing we notice is that it is Perez That Verstappen they ran with particularly conservative engine modes. However, if Perez in a range barely distinguishable from the competition, Verstappen he faced the whole Friday with a few dozen horses left to rest. It is clearly visible in the graph of the third sector of the flying lap how much the Dutchman is slower than Leclerc and his home teammate, leaving more than half a second in that section. It is true that Verstappen makes a mistake at the last corner, but the main straight that follows is so long that as the speeds begin to plateau the RB20 number 1 should reach a balance similar to that of its opponents, while settling on a clearly lower level, indicating a lower power output. Even from the average telemetry we note notable “gaps” in extension, further confirming an attitude evidently aimed at preserve the drive unit as much as possiblegiven the critical situation from the point of view of the components available. That said, Red Bull has nevertheless shown the best performance in several Grands Prix at this part, showing a good overall balance definitely, with just a hint of understeer to correct, which should not pose an insurmountable challenge for the engineers at Milton Keynes. The remarkable competitiveness of Perez (who with a similar level of power to the competition would have achieved the fastest time) is the unmistakable sign of a fast carat least on this track.
McLaren fast but with few opportunities to make the difference, and not brilliant on race pace
The obligatory favourite, that is, the McLarenseemed to have a this Friday significantly reduced gap over the competition if not completely cancelled. Norris would have had the chance to set perhaps the fastest time without the close encounter with Gasly on the main straight, but the impression is that the Baku track offers little chance to make a difference to the Woking single-seater, which does not have long, fast and load-bearing corners where it can open up the gap with its opponents. We know that the MCL38 has improved a lot on the longitudinal axis, and therefore it will be able to count on traction and rear protection, key characteristics on this track, but, at the moment, the engineers led by Andrea Stella do not seem to have found the ideal balance yet, so much so that the performance on the race pace turned out to be quite disappointingprobably affected by significant graining triggered by the poor grip conditions of the track. In this regard, the evolution of the track will be absolutely remarkable and could significantly change the values on the field. The question is whether McLaren will benefit the most in this case.
Mercedes good with Hamilton, very fast on the straight
As for the Brackley team, the box in this case has to be divided in two. Difficult day for George Russellaffected by problems of various kinds, and overall positive for Lewis Hamilton fast both in the single lap simulations and in the race pace ones. The single-seater of the Wolff team showed as its main weapon a remarkable straight line speedboth on the single lap and, above all, in the race pace simulation. The impression is that the Mercedes Power Unit has been pushed slightly more than its rivals, but also that the car is quite aerodynamically unloaded, with a visibly reduced rear wing on the trailing edge to reduce drag on the straight. In the pitch simulation Hamilton He didn’t do many laps, but he also achieved the best average time, with about a tenth and a half of advantage over the Ferrari of Carlos Sainza sign of good management, especially on such a slippery slope.
Ferrari the most complete and well-tuned on Friday: it will have to be able to follow the evolution of the track
Finally coming to the team of Maranellothe two SF-24 they performed well on the track. The impression is that they did not particular performance peaks on a straight or on a curve, but that the set-up decided by the Prancing Horse engineers represented the best compromise for the Baku track and for the complicated conditions of this Friday. Leclerc he found the best time on a single lap (although helped by having made his attempt later than his rivals) and Sainz he recorded the second best average in the race pace simulations, as well as the best overall performance in the long runs, where he arrived with an advantage of at least two tenths on the competition in the last sector, and then, in the endless main straight, he pulled away Verstappen very slow on the straight and be brought closer by the Mercedes Of Hamilton on the contrary very fast in acceleration. This provides an indication of how the red car was fundamentally balanced. The difficulty that now arises for engineers of The vessel and Sainz And Leclerc is knowing how to follow the evolution of the track, which will change significantly as the sessions continue and will require a set-up that can keep pace, without losing the precious and delicate point of balance on which these cars find their performance. The other challenge for Ferrari will be to be able to hit the operating window of the tires in qualifying, with temperatures that are not particularly high and a track that puts everyone in difficulty in terms of warming up the tyres, given the absence of strong and prolonged lateral accelerations and at the same time very long straights that create macroscopic differences between the temperatures of the front end (which plummet) and those of the rear end (which soar with traction).
Balance, uncertainty and a lot of work for everyone: prospects for an interesting weekend
Ultimately it is particularly difficult – if not impossible – to find a realistic hierarchy after the first two free practice sessions. Each of the four top team seems to have at the moment Strengths and weaknessesand the impression is that qualifying and the race will be played on the details. We will see who will be able to interpret the track of Baku at best despite the complicated conditions from many points of view, knowing that on this track not even qualifying is a definitive sentence compared to the race.
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