First a second slower than the leaders, then suddenly a second faster: Mercedes’ pace at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Baku raises question marks
George Russell inherited a podium for Mercedes at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz, who were in third and fourth place, crashed on the penultimate lap. However, third place is more than just flattering after the Silver Arrows’ performance on race Sunday, as the W15 had no pace at all at the start of the race.
While Lewis Hamilton, who had to start from the pits due to an engine change, was hardly able to make any significant progress, Russell struggled to keep up with the pace of Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull in the leading group. However, Mercedes’ pace at the end of the race was surprisingly strong again, which caused some surprise.
“We were really slow in the first stint,” says Russell. “I was about a second and a half slower than Charles on most laps. And it all felt pretty disastrous. But then in the last 20 laps of the race we were a second quicker than Piastri and Charles and three or four tenths quicker than Max and Carlos and Checo. So I’m a bit perplexed as to why that is. The only difference is the change from a yellow to a white tire. “
Experience advantage? Mercedes with alternative tire choice in Baku
With the help of data from our technology partner PACETEQ, we took another close look at the Mercedes lap times. On average, Russell was 1.027 seconds per lap slower than Charles Leclerc at the front in the first stint on the mediums. In the second stint on the hard tires, he was only 0.018 seconds slower per lap. After the tire change, the Briton lost practically no time on the leader
Mercedes was the only team to do a long run on the hard C3 tires on Friday. Instead, they gave themselves a race simulation on the medium. Ferrari’s tire choice was exactly the opposite and you could see that the Scuderia performed significantly better on the medium C4 than on the hard. So is it all just a matter of practice experience?
“Not really, to be honest,” Russell believes. “In practice on Friday … The track was very dirty this weekend, and on Friday I was about three seconds off the pace, so I didn’t contribute anything.” Nevertheless, Mercedes was the fastest team on average in the long runs on Friday.
Mercedes engineer: Why the medium didn’t work
“We need to understand what happened in the race, because in the last stint we had a car that was perfectly capable of winning this race,” Russell continued. “And in the first stint we had a car that probably didn’t deserve to be in the top 10. And the only difference is the tires.”
“We’re not the only team talking about it. It’s quite frustrating for all of us sometimes when you don’t understand the variation in performance between a Q1 and a Q2 or from one stint to another. Yes, it’s a challenge.”
Andrew Shovlin, the lead Mercedes engineer at the track, has an explanation as to why the medium didn’t work at all for Mercedes: “The first stint was weak for both drivers. We couldn’t stop the rear tires from overheating and at one point it looked like we were in for a very difficult afternoon. “
The hard tires suited us much better. George had a free run to figure out how to get the best out of the tires and keep them in a good window. That helped him a lot later in the race. We lost too much time at the start of the race to keep up with the leaders, but it was good to overtake Verstappen – that was crucial for the podium.”
On the other hand, Shovlin doesn’t want to get too euphoric: “It was nice to have a car on the podium, but we mustn’t kid ourselves: This weekend wasn’t good enough and we need to improve. “
Toto Wolff: Mercedes still a long way off the pace
Another astonishing fact. Lando Norris drove by far the fastest laps of the race as he strapped on new mediums towards the end of the Grand Prix. However, the fastest lap by another driver was set by Russell, who was on the same strategy as Oscar Piastri or Charles Leclerc and therefore had no tire advantage. His lap was also over four tenths faster than the fastest lap of the two drivers in front of him.
Team Principal Toto Wolff added: “I think it’s tricky when you’re in a train and fighting for position, but our car is clearly not good enough. The balance is not good enough to really keep up. We suffered from that.”
“And the second stint was really amazing. It was difficult at the start. But once the car found its balance, because George drove it the way it needed to be driven. I mean, we were the fastest car at times.”
At times, Mercedes even wondered whether they might still be able to catch up with the front runners: “We were still joking in the race when we said they were going to slow down, but they didn’t,” said Wolff. “They were chasing each other so much that there was a chance that they would simply drive the tires into the ground.”
“In the end, the pace of Piastri and Leclerc was obviously a long way off for us, because they totally massacred the tire and were still fast and we can’t do that. But there was still a lot to learn and hopefully we can apply it in Singapore. “
