The race in Baku has offered us a lot of hints about the real performance of the cars and we will try to dissect something here to get a better picture of the situation for the rest of the 2021 Formula 1 season.
Red Bull
The car is good and they showed this despite Max Verstappen late because: even on a very difficult track, Red Bull had both drivers in a position to take the win. This means that both were equipped with good aerodynamics and, above all, confirming what we have been saying for some time, that Red Bull is a car capable of so much downforce from the car body. This makes it more efficient than others.
The Azerbaijani weekend, for them, was anything but negative and we understand that from Bottas and Hamilton. With both Mercedes drivers out of the points, the Austrian team takes the lead of the constructors and drivers standings and could therefore celebrate given the domination of the last few years by the Germans. The car thus becomes the first candidate for:
engine: despite the high load at the rear, it defended itself very well on the long straight.
balance: the slower section was difficult and especially at low speed. With no high load available, if the car is malfunctioning, there is no hope to have a strong pace (and this we will see in the case of Mercedes).
Mercedes
As mentioned, both drivers are out of the points zone in Baku, but I would not focus on Hamilton, who is always very skilled and definitely more effective than Bottas. I would focus much more on the Finnish driver: after 6 races, compared to 2020 he has half the points collected in the last season and this means that there are heavy difficulties. From a technical point of view, it seems that the change of the 2021 rules may have caused a lot of damage to Valteri’s driving style. He just can’t find himself in the car and, in any case, even Hamilton is not as effective as last season.
The car still has something to recover and struggles a lot in the slow, twisty sections. If you look closely, in fact, when Charles Leclerc was trying to catch up on Hamilton, he always managed to close the gap to less than one second in the twisty sectot of the Baku City Circuit, only to lose in the final part. The German car would therefore still have to be fully balanced.
Ferrari
It was the lightest of the cars as a rear wing. The Maranello team tried to get the most out of it, but they knew they had to do it with a weaker engine than the others. The most dangerous point in Baku is in fact the straight and they could not help but play in defense by reducing the downforce. This was good in qualifying because, with very low fuel loads and very fresh tires, it could also be an advantage. As soon as the 80 kg of fuel arrived and the tires lost their initial grip layer, Charles Leclerc immediately lost positions. The car, in this sense, still pays the price for the low engine power.
Too bad because, in reality, with very low rear load, it also defended well on the slow sections. This is a sign of a good balance.
As anticipated, with Baku, Ferrari confirms itself as the third force in the 2021 Formula 1 season and, effectively, remaining ahead of the McLarens, the Italian side takes the third position in the standings.
Ferrari’s weekend, therefore, is anything but negative and confirms progress and the fact that the team is is heading in the right direction.
We now get ready for the French Grand Prix with excellent ideas and good points of view to understand what could happen.
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