Max Verstappen led the FP session with 0.424 seconds from Lewis Hamilton, leaving Mercedes to wonder why they are losing time on the lap.
After Friday’s Free Practice session, Red Bull’s strength on the Mexican track became evident. Max Verstappen led the competition with a lead of 0.424 seconds from Mercedes.
However, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas could keep the second Red Bull with Sergio Perez in check. Mercedes engineers fear that the Dutchman still has reserves in the long run.
However, Mercedes is wondering why all the time is lost only on the second part of the lap, especially in the fast snaking. Hamilton and Bottas cannot drive over the curbs as aggressively as the Red Bull. The cars hit too hard. At the end of the lap in the stadium section, the tires are too hot.
1⃣:1⃣7⃣.3⃣0⃣1⃣
Check out Friday’s fastest lap from Max Verstappen…#SkyF1 | #F1 | #MexicoGP 🇲🇽f
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Despite the extended power advantage from Honda, the Mercedes are faster on the straight run. That is because Mercedes does not have a rear wing that produces as much downforce as Red Bull.
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Can Mercedes battle against Red Bull?
The Mercedes F1 team is concerned about the loss of time. Lewis Hamilton’s gap with title rival could have been lesser if he had done a flawless lap, but he couldn’t keep up. He kept pace with Verstappen in the first sector, then he lost two tenths in the middle sector and three in the final section.
Until turn 7, Hamilton and Bottas were on a par with Verstappen. They lost control across all the corners for the remaining laps, specifically in turns 9 and 15. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said, “when it comes to the specification for a lot of downforces, Red Bull is better.”
The absence of a rear wing in the Mercedes builds up contact pressure. To keep the aerodynamics in the perfect window, the drivers have to lower the cars and set the chassis. Further, in the last sector, the tires were too hot.
The Mercedes engineers said, “there is still a lot of setup work to do.” Wolff explained, “you can only stretch yourself to a certain extent if you have an inferior package on a certain route. We have limits somewhere.”
However, Mercedes flew 6km/h faster than Red Bull in the thin air of Mexico City. But that is also because Mercedes is not only driving with less downforce, but also with less aerodynamics drag. The Brackley-based team also noticed that the Red Bull drivers did a lot of rift and coast in the race simulation.
At Turn 1, Hamilton and Bottas had to change their plan after squeezing the hard tires’ brakes. Before the tires could be used again, they had to be milled off. In the meantime, the Mercedes drivers switched to soft tires.
Only a few teams use voluntarily use the soft tire in races. Mercedes did not touch the medium rubber in the afternoon. This indicates that the team wants to reserve three sets of medium per driver. Two groups each for the Q2 and a replacement if a safety car enables a free pit stop during the race.
