“Its excellent to be back.” Lewis Hamilton summarized the mood in the Red Bull Ring paddock after Formula 1 vehicles finally struck the track on a race weekend in 2020.
The Mercedes motorist, along with team mate Valtteri Bottas, was on the pace right from the off, the set securing a one-two for the world champions in both Friday practice sessions. So is that a sign of things to come this weekend? Time to take a look at the information …
READ MORE: Hamilton heads another Mercedes 1-2 with Racing Points Perez third in Austria
One lap speed
Hamilton, targeting his seventh world title this year and sixth in 7 years, was in scintillating form, clocking a time that was 0.641 s quicker than any other car in the field.
It was actually Ferrari, who entered this weekend with low expectations who were 2nd quickest over one lap, when we corrected the lap times for fuel. While Sebastian Vettel explained it as a “good” day, he hinted that they may be looking at holding off those behind, rather than taking the battle to Mercedes.
Sergio Perez, driving a Racing Point that has been called the pink Mercedes given how comparable it aims to in 2015s all-conquering W10, was the closest challenger– however when we crunched the numbers, it told a various story.
The timesheet for Fridays second practice session, where teams finished their first real low-fuel, soft tyre run of the weekend made for grim reading for anybody not driving a Mercedes.
LEARNT MORE: Ferrari performance even worse than anticipated admits Leclerc after tough start in Austria
Whether they will be completing against shock performers Racing Point when it matters stays to be seen, however the pink cars and trucks certainly provided on their early season promise based upon their type in practice.
Lance Stroll explained it as the very best Friday hes ever had with the team, the Canadian delighted with the feel and balance of the car, while Sergio Perez was concentrated on assaulting the huge teams rather than racing in the midfield.
Renault and McLaren were successive and evenly matched with Red Bull over the one-lap things. For Renault, who checked at the Red Bull Ring last month, they were “favorable” about their opportunities, particularly in qualifying.
FP2 Highlights: 2020 Austrian Grand Prix
McLaren too were encouraged about their rate relative to Renault, but both Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris referenced Racing Points impressive speed and reckon it may be excessive for them this weekend.
CHECKED OUT MORE: Racing Point method too far from rest of midfield, confesses McLarens Sainz
Williams wont be defending pole on Saturday, but it does seem like they are heading in the right instructions.
Alfa Romeo carried out well in the long runs, regardless of neither Kimi Raikkonen nor Antonio Giovinazzi seeming like they were that delighted with the automobile, with Alfa Romeo in 5th to AlphaTauri in 10th separated by simply 0.7 s/lap on what is a really brief track, recommending it might be a quite delicious battle on Sunday.
Its here that Red Bull handled to make some ground back, although they will still have actually struggled with Verstappen messing up a set of tires when he ran into the gravel, the Dutchman unable to collect representative long run data on that set of lap times.
The feeling existss plenty more to come from a group who have heavily upgraded their vehicle for this weekend, with a Honda power and reliability upgrade to boot.
Ferrari were down in fourth, with the information worked out based upon computed fuel loads, with Charles Leclerc confessing the group have to “work quite difficult to capture up total performance”.
Racing Point continue to cause a stir, making their pre-weekend targets of taking the battle to the big 3 appearance more sensible. They were just 0.4 s/lap slow on their long runs, a portion ahead of Red Bull.
Williams remained in a surprise seventh in this metric– not frequently weve said that in the last couple of years. Unfortunately, its unlikely to be the case on Saturday, however, as while George Russell reckons theyve made an action forward, getting out of Q1 may be a bit too much to ask right now– however the favorable thing is they appear to be entering the ideal direction
Race pace
They reduce that deficit in the high speed stuff to simply 0.06 s adrift of the Silver Arrows but in the power stakes, remarkably they were on par with McLaren, AlphaTauri and Williams and well down on Racing Point and Renault.
He hinted that they appear to lose speed in the corners. According to our information, as you can see from the chart, they are a portion off Mercedes in the low speed– an area they have absolutely enhanced versus last year– but among the bottom half of teams in the medium speed.
Red Bull were possibly the surprise in this metric, till Max Verstappen informed me he broke his front wing on his push lap, and then when he returned to the track, they went with a various wing and he said they were “too aggressive” with it.
You might not be shocked to see Mercedes at the top of this metric, as they so typically are, however you might be surprised by the substantial space to the rest of the pack.
FOUND OUT MORE: Hamilton taking strong Mercedes Friday speed with a pinch of salt
Plenty, then, to eagerly anticipate. Weve already made it further than we carried out in Australia, with one day of track running. Heres to another captivating day on Saturday and ideally an interesting race– just like in 2015s cracker– on Sunday.
Verdict
Theres the weather condition to think about, with the temperatures set to increase, and cloud cover reduce, raising the track heat and supplying conditions the groups will have extremely limited data on from Friday, given it was damp early on and normally cooler in the dry.
Mercedes looked fast on Friday – however it can all alter come race day …
Needs to it be legal, Red Bull might well want to include their own variation onto their cars and truck, leaving Mercedes totally free to use their development from FP3 onwards. If its not, Mercedes will need to take the system off the automobile, which possibly could obstruct their possibilities this weekend.
On the face of it, this appears like Mercedes are set to start their defence in the finest possible way this year, so strong were they on Friday. However lets not forget that in 2015, there was a Ferrari and Mercedes on the front row, but the Red Bull of Verstappen in 3rd, who dropped to eighth at the start, was the chauffeur who claimed victory– so its by no indicates a foregone conclusion.
And we wait for the outcome of the demonstration lodged by Red Bull in recommendation to the Mercedes DAS system. They need to know if the ingenious device, which turned a lot of heads in pre-season testing, is legal. Mercedes reckon it is, having actually had conversations with the FIA, so itll be interesting to see how the stewards guideline.
TYPE GUIDE: Why current history favours Verstappen in Austria
The Mercedes driver, along with team mate Valtteri Bottas, was on the speed right from the off, the set protecting a one-two for the world champs in both Friday practice sessions. Time to look at the data …
READ MORE: Hamilton heads another Mercedes 1-2 with Racing Points Perez third in Austria
And we await the outcome of the result lodged by Red Bull in reference to the Mercedes DAS system. Mercedes reckon it is, having had conversations with the FIA, so itll be interesting to see how the stewards rule.
Mercedes looked quick on Friday – however it can all alter come race day …
Heres to another fascinating day on Saturday and hopefully an appealing race– much like last years cracker– on Sunday.
