The first free practice session has ended on the Baku track, but we have to be careful in looking at the results. The difficulties of the Baku City Circuit leave many doubts to the engineers about the right set-up of the cars, and inevitably many solutions (sometimes even radically different from each other) are tested directly on the track during free practice, in search of the best compromise. We will analyze the whole day in more detail after the second free practice sessions, but in the meantime we have compared the first results of the day to start having an idea of the hierarchy on track.
Ferrari ok, but looking for solutions for the Power Unit
One of the surprises of the FP1 standings is certainly the Maranello team, with Charles Leclerc second only 43 thousandths from Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz 3 tenths behind the Monegasque in third position. We compared Charles Leclerc’s lap with Max Verstappen’s to find the most interesting points:
There are four aspects in particular: starting with the first sector, made up of only straights and braking, Red Bull seems to have a bit more speed and looking at the data it seems that the traction phase is the one which helps the Austrian car. The second is that in the two straights before Turn 3 and Turn 15 the limited hybrid power on the SF21 is particularly evident, in search of conservation of electricity that can then be used in the very long straight. The third aspect is the central sector: Charles Leclerc still achieves better time than Verstappen (a few thousandths faster) with particularly good speed results in the very slow corners and in the narrowest sections of the track, confirming what we saw in Monaco. The last aspect is the difference in distance of the last straight. Both cars have a first “jump” of acceleration after turn 18, with an evident and important first release of hybrid energy. Which, however, on the RB16B ends earlier than expected because with the opening of the DRS (second jump after turn 20) it is Charles Leclerc who finds a better extension speed. In fact, it is clear that the red car seems to have already found an optimized management of charging and the use of the hybrid system, on which the Maranello team puts its hopes for the weekend as the lack of power from the internal combustion engine will be felt on this track . Unlike Red Bull, there is still a lot of work to be done at this stage, and it is not uncommon for Honda to arrive at race weekends with a lot of attempts.
Beware of McLaren
Although the final standings did not see the cars from Woking excel, the MCL35M demonstrated one of the highest potentials seen on the track in the straights. Lando Norris, before his lap, was setting an excellent time and Daniel Ricciardo’s last sector remained the best of the session for by far. Putting together the first two sectors of Norris and the third of Ricciardo we would have a time of 1: 42.7, almost half a second faster than that of Verstappen. Since the great rival for Ferrari for third place in the world championship is the English team, we compared the interrupted lap of Norris with that of Charles Leclerc.
It is clear that Ferrari continues to struggle in the first sector, instead defending well in the second, but on the straights McLaren seems to have a significant margin. For this purpose we also compared the final straight of Charles Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo and here the difference is also significant visually, with more than 10 km / h advantage of the Australian for a long part of the straight.
We still have no reliable Mercedes feedback, still too hidden and under study and with Hamilton making a mistake in the only really good lap that could give some reference.
In conclusion, the session was just a study approach for the teams, Red Bull seemed already quite fine but with some work to do on the Power Unit front. Ferrari perhaps the most advanced of all, but with the handicap of a margin for improvement that, at least for these first impressions, is less than the others, which will be able to progress a lot, especially once all the power will be released. In light of this, Lando Norris could also have a chance for the very first places in qualifying. We will see later in the day if these first impressions are confirmed.
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