小红牛在奥斯汀站后确定两个关键关注点
马克斯·维斯塔潘在奥斯汀站的练习赛中表现出色，但车队仍需关注两个关键领域。
小红牛在马克斯·维斯塔潘在奥斯汀站的练习赛中表现出色后确定两个关键关注点。
维斯塔潘认为在美洲赛道的第一天“一点也不糟糕”。除了极端的颠簸外，技术总监皮埃尔·瓦切还指出了另一个对小红牛来说非常重要的领域。
马克斯·维斯塔潘在奥斯汀站的练习赛中排名第二和第三。在两场练习赛中，这位四次世界冠军都落后查尔斯·勒克莱尔不到两十分，后者在两场练习赛中都设定了基准。
例如，小红牛并没有像在马来西亚那样立即从其他车队中脱颖而出，但维斯塔潘仍然对小红牛22在德克萨斯州的早期表现表示满意。
“本周末的起步很积极。这条赛道在寻找高速和低速弯角之间的最佳妥协点时从来都不容易”，荷兰人在FP2结束后说道。
“这些凹凸使得情况更加困难，因此你需要在车内找到良好的平衡并进入节奏。这就是我们在FP1和FP2之间一直在努力的事情。为了微调这个平衡，我们还有更多的工作要做，但总的来说，这并不是一个糟糕的一天。”
从实际意义上讲，这意味着车队本周末需要在两种不同的方式中找到妥协。鉴于美国赛车场的布局多样化，第一个问题关注的是高速和低速弯角之间的平衡。根据GPS数据，红牛在高速路段表现出竞争力，这使得技术总监皮埃尔·瓦赫非常明确地知道需要改进的地方。
“目前我们关注的显然是低速性能。低速对我们来说至关重要。”
这反映在数据中。比较勒克莱尔、安东内利和维斯塔潘的最快圈速，赛道的最慢弯道几乎都是红色的——换句话说，这是法拉利的领地。勒克莱尔在刹车和1号弯的出弯处都很强，在11号弯，也就是长直道前的慢速左弯，也表现出同样的模式。
在那个长直道的末端——就在刹车点之前——维斯塔潘几乎比勒克莱尔快了十分之一，而安东内利则快了超过两十分之一。然而，维斯塔潘在12号到16号弯之间损失了大量的时间，这是赛道上的另一个较慢的段落。
这强调了瓦赫的评论，尽管在奥斯汀的挑战不仅仅是找到不同类型弯道的正确平衡。同样重要的是在绝对性能和能够合理应对颠簸的赛车之间的妥协，维斯塔潘在周四的媒体日将其描述为“无法接受”和“失控”。
当被问及小红牛22如何应对赛道条件时，瓦赫说：“赛车对那些颠簸的反应就像你预期的那样，它跳得很多。”
“赛道非常颠簸，尤其是在1号弯道刹车时。你必须非常小心。但是，是的，这就是我们使用这种设置的问题所在。它没有去年那么硬，但也没有那么远[偏离那个程度]。这辆车的颠簸适应性在这里不是很好。”
使用“设置”这个术语，Wache并不是指红牛的选择，而是指当前一代的F1赛车。理论上，这些赛车在颠簸路面上应该比近年来的地面效应赛车更舒适，但维斯塔潘在周四解释说，实际情况正好相反。
得益于主动空气动力学和直线模式，赛车在直道上略微上升。这限制了滑块磨损，使车队能够在车身高度方面进一步突破极限。因此，在刹车和过弯时，车身高度保持较低，这正是美洲赛道极其颠簸的区域。
据Wache所说，改善赛车在那些颠簸上的表现和其低速性能是红牛在排位赛前的两个主要优先事项。
英文原文
Red Bull identifies two "key focus" areas after Max Verstappen's promising start in Austin
Verstappen concludes that Friday at the Circuit of the Americas was "not a bad day at all". Alongside the extreme bumps, technical director Pierre Waché pinpoints another important area for Red Bull to focus on
Max Verstappen finished Friday's practice sessions for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in second and third place. In both sessions, the four-time world champion was less than two tenths behind Charles Leclerc, who set the benchmark on both occasions.
Red Bull is not immediately standing out from the rest of the field as it did in Malaysia, for example, but Verstappen is nevertheless largely satisfied with the early signs from the RB22 in Texas.
"It's been a positive start to the weekend. This track is never easy when it comes to finding the right compromise between the low and high-speed corners", the Dutchman said after FP2.
"The bumps make it even more difficult, so you’re trying to find a good balance in the car and get into a rhythm. That’s what we’ve been working on between FP1 and FP2. There’s still a bit more work to do to fine-tune that balance, but it wasn’t a bad day at all."
In practical terms, this means teams have to find a compromise in two different ways this weekend. Given the varied layout of the Circuit of the Americas, the first concerns the balance between high-speed and low-speed corners. Based on the GPS data, Red Bull appears competitive in the high-speed sections, making technical director Pierre Wache very clear about what needs to improve.
"It's clearly the low speed performance that we are focused on at the moment. Low speed is the key for us."
That is reflected in the data. Comparing the fastest laps of Leclerc, Antonelli and Verstappen, the slowest corners on the circuit are predominantly coloured red – in other words, Ferrari territory. Leclerc is strong both on the brakes and on the exit of Turn 1, and shows the same pattern at Turn 11, the slow left-hander before the long straight.
At the end of that long straight – just before the braking point – Verstappen is almost a tenth ahead of Leclerc's time, while Antonelli is more than two tenths ahead. However, Verstappen loses considerable ground through Turns 12 to 16, another slower section of the circuit.
This underlines Wache's comments, although the challenge in Austin is not just about finding the right balance between different types of corners. Equally important is the compromise between outright performance and a car that can cope reasonably well with the bumps, which Verstappen described as "unacceptable" and "out of control" during Thursday's media day.
"The car reacts to those bumps how you would expect, it's jumping a lot", Wache said when asked how the RB22 is dealing with the track conditions.
"The track is massively bumpy, especially at Turn 1 under braking. You have to be very careful. But yeah, that’s the problem with this type of set-up that we are using. It is not as stiff as last year, but also not so far [away from that]. The car is not very compliant on the bumps here."
By using the term set-up, Wache is not referring specifically to Red Bull's choices, but to the current generation of F1 cars. In theory, these should be slightly more comfortable over the bumps than the ground-effect cars of recent years, but Verstappen explained on Thursday that the opposite is actually the case.
Thanks to active aerodynamics and straight mode, the cars rise slightly on the straights. This limits wear on the skid blocks and gives teams the freedom to push the limits even further in terms of ride height. As a result, the ride height is low under braking and through the corners, precisely the areas where the Circuit of the Americas is extremely bumpy.
According to Wache, improving the car's behaviour over those bumps and its low-speed performance are Red Bull's two main priorities ahead of qualifying.
Motorsport.com ·
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