A short first free practice session took place at the renewed Zandvoort track which, meaning that as a result of the very long break for the recovery of Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin, drivers were able to complete only a few laps, which is why very little has been seen and understood regarding the real values on track and what to expect for the weekend. However, there was some interesting indication, especially on the driving style and on the preferences of the drivers shown in these first laps. We must make the necessary premise that a technical problem on Lewis Hamilton’s ECU has deprived us of his data from the first session, which is why we cannot make evaluations on his lap time, but we can still think about the comparison between Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and the other Mercedes, that of Valtteri Bottas.
From a first glimpse of the data, it is immediately clear how the drivers’ approach is typical for new tracks (we saw it many times in 2020) with great differences in interpretation in the various sections of the track. We expect that with the passing of the sessions the performances will tend to converge, although on the Dutch track the options for many corners remain open to different interpretations so we should still be able to see different driving styles. A section where, on the other hand, there are already convergences is Turn 3, with the drivers who already use almost all of a line wide enough to take advantage of the growing banking and bring more speed, while, somewhat surprisingly, there are important differences in interpretation at the turn 7, where we see a much more gradual Bottas in deceleration and in facing the corner, trying to be as continuous as possible, unlike Carlos Sainz and especially Verstappen who are more aggressive on the final phase of acceleration and consequently on the brake. At turn 8, the Finn is by far the slowest of the 3, while in the last 2 extensions it is Carlos Sainz who is slowest.
The first preliminary impression is of a close battle between Mercedes and Red Bull and of a Ferrari that seems to behave very well, combined with a Carlos Sainz who in this first session showed the worked very well on the simulator in order to be able to presented himself with trajectories and driving style already very effective, as indicated by the passages at turn 2, at the entrance to the Hugenholtz complex, at turn 7 and in turns 9 and 10. Ferrari seem to have started with a medium-high downforce set-up. The SF21 seems to behave well with this type of set-up and the condition of third force (or even of third inconvenience between the two quarreling top teams) appears at least a likely goal for now, even if only with the second free practice session we will be able to better understand the situation on the track.
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