Is the improvement from Mercedes real? – what we learned on Friday at the F1 GP in Austria | F1

Has Mercedes really taken a step forward?

After Mercedes was beaten well at the Styrian Grand Prix last weekend, Mercedes appeared to hit back in Friday practice, with Lewis Hamilton leading the timesheet ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas in the second session.

The Mercedes couple were crushed in the same location by Max Verstappen last time, and many expected that there would be a similar story in the Styrian hills this weekend.

Pirelli took a step softer in terms of allocation this weekend, so it’s no surprise that the times in FP2 were significantly faster than the same time last weekend.

However, Mercedes took the biggest step compared to a week ago – 1.273 seconds improvement compared to Red Bull by only 0.672 seconds.

On the subject of matching items

The Mercedes W12 was often difficult to set up and it proved challenging to get it into the right work window. Back-to-back races in the same location mean you have significantly more time to customize the car to your liking, and with an entire weekend of data in your back pocket, it looks like Mercedes has overcome the traps with blazing weapons.

Both drivers were satisfied with the vehicle balance after the training session. Bottas said: “I think we started well, what the car feels like, much better than last week and hopefully we can build on that.”

On the subject of matching items

After the session, team boss Toto Wolff seemed to indicate that Mercedes is running a slightly higher power mode than Red Bull, whereby the championship leaders will probably take a step forward in qualifying – as Mercedes has always done in “party mode” . was one thing.

“Carefully optimistic,” said Wolff to Sky Sports F1. “I think the speech Red Bull has given all these years, I think – I expect more engine from these guys tomorrow, but we’ve improved a few corners, that’s encouraging.

“I think a little more engine [mode than Red Bull] and then we did it right too. In the laps before that there were more mistakes and they were pretty good. “

All in all, Mercedes has improved, but whether it will be enough to overthrow a formidable Verstappen in front of many of his enthusiastic fans remains to be seen.

Red Bull has more plans

With Mercedes in the lead in the second practice session, Verstappen finished third in the final standings, a little more than two tenths behind Hamilton’s 1: 04.523 minutes.

The Dutchman looked the most comfortable on the harder compounds and was the leader in the early stages on Pirelli’s C4 Medium tires.

Hamilton and Wolff both predict Red Bull will see a significant improvement overnight, and given the dominant pace it showed last weekend – pole by more than 0.2 seconds and winning the Grand Prix by 35 seconds – it would be surprising not to see Verstappen back at the top when it matters.

The World Cup leader was satisfied with the handling of his Red Bull RB16B and gave no cause for concern when assessing his day after the session.

“I think this run wasn’t perfect on our part. But I still felt comfortable in the car, everything felt very good, ”explained Verstappen.

“There are no real problems, we just have to make sure that we have a bit more speed on the soft, because I think we look good on the middle track and we look good on long tracks too. That is the most important thing at the end of the day. “

However, Sergio Perez still has a lot to do and ended the day in eleventh place.

He was almost a second behind Hamilton’s benchmark and couldn’t get the soft tire to run for one lap.

His races seemed to be at just the right pace – as always – but Perez can’t afford to qualify poorly, especially as Bottas doesn’t have to serve a starting penalty this time around.

Aston Martin, AlphaTauri look tough

Aston Martin enjoyed his best Friday of the season as Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel both finished the day in the top five.

Stroll had a strong weekend last time and finished eighth, but it is a welcome improvement for Vettel, who only finished 12th in the Styrian GP.

As with Mercedes, the question is whether Aston Martin ran more aggressive engine modes compared to its immediate opposition, but still a positive day for the Silverstone-based team.

“It’s Friday. If we are P5 tomorrow, that would of course be great, but it’s still at the beginning and I think we were maybe a bit more aggressive than other people,” said Vettel.

“But it’s definitely good, we’re going to take it, and I think we’ve tried a few things too, so we’ll see you tomorrow. Other conditions this weekend, hopefully we have done our homework in between and are a bit stronger this weekend. “

AlphaTauri continued to impress with Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly well below the top ten in both sessions.

It’s a continuation of the form it showed last weekend when Gasly finished sixth and Tsunoda also made it into the top ten.

Qualifying wasn’t a particular issue for Gasly in 2021, which made Q3 one of every race. The Frenchman will likely be a serious contender for the “best of the rest” behind the top four, but a clean race is required as the battle with Aston Martin for fifth in the Constructors’ category will be a close one.

Traffic causes headaches

With 20 F1 cars racing on a 2.683 mile long venue and with lap times approaching 60 seconds, it’s no surprise that traffic was a recurring problem for drivers in practice.

Even with over 300 Grand Prix starts, Kimi Räikkönen was a culprit in FP2 and blocked Fernando Alonso in the last corners.

“I can not believe it. I can not believe it. Fuck. These guys don’t have mirrors. Who was that guy? “

It also led to an amusing exchange between Verstappen and his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

Verstappen came into Turn 3 behind a slow-moving Lando Norris. The Red Bull driver complained over the team radio and said, “I won’t even say what the hell happened.”

Lambiase replied: “What happened?”

Verstappen exclaimed: “No, I’m not saying that! The people are blind! “

The short track will always make traffic a problem, but the positioning of the pit lane won’t help either.

Drivers and teams need to be on their guard to avoid a starting penalty.