马德里大奖赛前瞻：高抓地力与高轮胎损耗成焦点，梅赛德斯调侃六停策略
F1车手首次造访马德里赛道时体验到出乎意料的高抓地力，同时极高的轮胎损耗同样令围场内多支车队感到意外。梅赛德斯领队托托·沃尔夫还就超长维修区带来的六停策略开玩笑，但实际上维修区过长反而更倾向于一停。
马德里大奖赛会有什么看点？从梅赛德斯的六次进站玩笑，到一条“长达六公里”的维修通道
托托·沃尔夫表示，一练结束后，梅赛德斯的策略部门就在考虑六次进站的比赛。实际上，这条超长的维修通道已经招致批评，而且看起来更有利于一次进站的策略
马德里的这条赛道在首次迎接一级方程式车手时提供了出人意料的高抓地力，这对于一条新赛道来说绝非理所当然。围场里的一些车队对抓地力水平感到意外，不过到目前为止极高的轮胎损耗同样令他们吃惊。
“周末开始的时候挺棘手的，因为这条赛道抓地力非常高，尽管它是一层全新的沥青表面，”梅赛德斯车队领队托托·沃尔夫说。“而且有趣的是，我们遇到的问题和我们预期的完全相反。”
“根据第一个阶段结束后的情况来看，我们的策略总监说：‘六停！’，因为实际上每圈的轮胎衰退达到了十分之八秒。我们从未见过这种情况，但最终，我认为还是会变成一停。”
为什么马德里的轮胎衰退这么严重？
在周五的练习赛之后，轮胎供应商倍耐力也表达了惊讶，倒不是抓地力水平的问题——因为周三赛前测试时抓地力就已经很高了——而是轮胎的衰退程度。
“是的，老实说这确实是个意外，”倍耐力首席工程师西蒙内·贝拉在接受Motorsport.赛车运动网站采访时被问到这个问题时说。“各支车队正在调整赛车的调校，以在性能和长距离轮胎衰退之间找到最佳折中方案。不过，出现这样的数值确实出乎意料。它们超出了我们的预期范围。”
这些数值虽然不像沃尔夫所说的那么极端，但按照一级方程式的标准仍然值得关注——通常这种情况更像是卡塔尔赛道的特征，那里高温与一连串高速弯角相结合。据倍耐力介绍，周五仅因轮胎性能衰减，每圈就损失了约0.2到0.3秒的圈速。
马德里赛道（马德里赛道）迄今为止提供了出乎意料好的抓地力水平，但它对轮胎的损耗非常大
据这家意大利轮胎供应商介绍，马德里出现高磨损的根本原因有两个：轮胎颗粒化（graining）以及后轴常见的热性能衰减。
“在这种光滑的铺装路面和高抓地力水平下，我们会产生轮胎颗粒化现象，”贝拉说。“我们基本上达到了应力的峰值，所以轮胎开始撕裂并扩散颗粒化。”
“这里的颗粒化程度肯定是一个限制因素，车手们能感觉到性能有所下降。这是他们在周五重油量长距离测试中遇到的影响之一，前左轮的颗粒化成为限制因素，导致整个测试过程中弯道中出现转向不足。但我们的后轴也出现了一些热衰减，所以这两种影响的结合造成了相当严重的轮胎退化。”
F1车手批评马德里的维修区通道过长
这显然不会导致六次进站，但据倍耐力表示，这确实让战略权衡变得困难。而车队在阿维德·林德布拉德于第二节自由练习中撞车之后，并没有特别多的长距离测试数据，这让情况更加复杂。
“比赛会发生什么本身就是一个问号。我不想排除任何可能出现的情况，”贝拉说。
在第二次练习赛结束后，倍耐力预测车手们会采用两次进站的策略，但一天之后这一预测被修改为一次进站。原因很简单：马德里的维修通道极长。
诺里斯和维斯塔潘都认为维修通道实在太长了，并指出这是一个设计缺陷。
维修通道实际上被分成了两个部分，因为IFEMA建筑群的一部分位于中间。虽然维修通道确实绕过了1号弯和2号弯，但车手们仍然认为这是马德里赛道（马德里赛道）设计过程中的一个重大失误。
“这条维修通道差不多有六公里长！”兰多·诺里斯在排位赛后的新闻发布会上说。“我们应该把维修通道分成两段：先进站限速区，出了限速区，然后再进一次限速区。这是全年最长的维修通道，也是全年进站损失最大的赛道。这只会让超车变得更难。”
“这会让人们更不愿意进站尝试不同策略。如果我们要新建一条赛道并花费这么多钱，那么这大概是设计赛道时的主要考量之一——设置一条短维修通道，让人们能够顺利进站，从而创造超车机会。”
漫长的维修通道有利于一停策略，尽管按照倍耐力的数据，一停和两停的纯比赛时间是相同的。通常情况下，这本是制造策略多样性的完美场景——这也正是倍耐力想要达到的目标——但马德里的维修通道可能会毁掉这一点。
在比赛前列靠前位置进行提前进站（提前进站）可能引发第二轮进站潮，但这同样是一场赌博，因为在马德里赛道位置至关重要。为了新轮胎放弃赛道位置是有风险的，贝拉也承认这一点。
“另一个因素是，与各车队交流后了解到，在这里超车似乎相当困难，”他说。“如果你处在车流当中，你会损失相当多的性能，而且还会毁掉你的轮胎，因为你失去了气流负载，导致温度升高。所以车流会产生不利影响，并推动大家倾向一停策略。”
除了所有理性因素之外，在马德里不幸随时可能降临，正如贝尔曼在周六所发现的那样。
撇开这些因素不谈，发生撞车——随之而来的安全车或红旗——在马德里也是相当有可能出现的，这意味着运气女神所起的作用可能会比车队任何可以理性评估的因素都要大。
车队需要为各种不同的情景做好准备，这也是为什么一些车队故意在周五和周六节省轮胎。如果出现早期的红旗或安全车，他们希望能够换上一套全新的硬胎；而如果比赛后期发生撞车，他们则更倾向于额外进站换上全新的软胎或中性胎。
这正是法拉利的两位车手在第一节排位赛使用中性胎完成的原因，从而为正赛保留了一套全新的软胎。
倍耐力赛车运动主管达里奥·马拉福斯基对此表示：“我认为他们更放松了。在我看来，这是一个选择，是考虑到可能出现安全车（中文：中立化，英文：neutralisation）的情况。所以他们有一套全新的软胎，也许是为了比赛最后阶段在出现安全车时使用。
如果你按照一场正常比赛来起步，我们的建议是中性胎加硬胎，但如果在最后几圈出现安全车，他们手上还有一套全新的软胎。那将是一个巨大的优势，尽管无论如何超车都很困难。”
英文原文
What to expect from Madrid GP? From Mercedes' six-stop joke to a "six-kilometre-long" pitlane
Toto Wolff said that after FP1, Mercedes' strategy department was thinking about a six-stop race. In reality, the extremely long pitlane has drawn criticism and appears to favour a one-stopper
The circuit in Madrid has offered Formula 1 drivers a surprisingly high level of grip during their first visit, something that is certainly not a given at a new circuit. The grip level has taken some teams in the paddock by surprise, although the very high tyre degradation so far has done the same.
"It was tricky at the start of the weekend because this track has so much grip, even though it's a completely new asphalt surface," Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said. "And interestingly enough, we have faced the exact opposite problem to what we expected.
"Based on how it looked after the first session, our strategy director said, ‘Six stops!’, because there was actually eight-tenths of degradation per lap. We've never seen that before, but in the end, I think it'll end up being a one-stop."
Why is tyre degradation so high in Madrid?
After Friday's practice sessions, tyre supplier Pirelli also expressed its surprise, not so much at the grip level – as that had already proved high during the pre-race measurements on Wednesday – but at the tyre degradation.
"Yes, honestly it has been a surprise," Pirelli chief engineer Simone Berra said when asked about it by Motorsport.com. "The teams are working on their set-ups to find the best compromise between the performance and long-run degradation. But, for sure, it's a surprise to have these kinds of values. They are outside our range of expectations."
Those values are not quite as extreme as Wolff suggested, but they are still noteworthy by F1 standards – something that is normally more characteristic of Qatar, a track where the heat is combined with a succession of high-speed corners. According to Pirelli, Friday saw two to three tenths of a second of lap time lost per lap purely through tyre degradation.
The Madring has offered a surprisingly good level of grip so far, but it’s very hard on the tyres
According to the Italian tyre supplier, the high degradation in Madrid has two underlying causes: graining and the usual thermal degradation at the rear axle.
"With this smooth tarmac and the high grip levels, we have graining generation," said Berra. "We basically reach the peak of the stress, so the tyre starts to tear and propagate graining.
"The graining level is for sure a limitation here, drivers can feel that there is a drop in performance. This is one of the effects that they have encountered during the high fuel runs on Friday, where front left graining was a limitation, inducing mid-corner understeer throughout the run. But we also had some thermal decay on the rear axle, so the combination of the two effects is generating a significant level of degradation."
F1 drivers criticise Madrid’s long pitlane
It will obviously not lead to six pitstops, but according to Pirelli it does make the strategic trade-off difficult. This is compounded by the fact that teams do not have a particularly large amount of long-run data following Arvid Lindblad's crash in FP2.
"What to expect for the race is already a question mark. I don't want to exclude any kind of situation," Berra said.
After the second practice session, Pirelli predicted a two-stopper, but a day later that prediction has been revised to a one-stopper. The reason is simple: the extremely long pitlane in Madrid.
Both Norris and Verstappen believe that the pitlane is far too long and highlights a design flaw
The pitlane is effectively split into two sections because part of the IFEMA complex sits in between. Although the pitlane does cut out Turns 1 and 2, drivers nevertheless believe it has been a major mistake in the Madring's design process.
"The pitlane is like six kilometres long!" said Lando Norris in the post-qualifying press conference. "We should have two parts of the pitlane: pit limiter, off pit limiter, and then pit limiter again. It’s the longest pit lane of the year and biggest pit loss of the year as well. That just makes overtaking worse.
"It makes the desire to box and do different strategies worse. If we’re going to build a new track and spend so much money on building a new track, this is probably one of the main factors, I would say, in making a track, to have a short pitlane so people can pit and then you create overtaking."
The long pitlane favours a one-stopper, despite the fact that according to Pirelli the pure race time is the same for one and two pitstops. Normally, that is a perfect scenario for creating strategic variation – which is exactly what Pirelli wants to achieve – but the Madrid pitlane could potentially ruin that.
An undercut relatively near the front of the field could trigger a second round of pitstops, but that is also a gamble, as track position is crucial in Madrid. Giving up track position for fresh rubber is risky, as Berra also acknowledges.
"The other factor is that, speaking with the teams, it seems quite difficult to overtake here," he said. "If you are in traffic, you lose quite a lot of performance and you destroy your tyres as well, because you lose load and generate higher temperatures. So the traffic can have a detrimental effect and is pushing towards the one-stop."
Apart from all the rational factors, misfortune in Madrid is just around the corner, as Bearman discovered on Saturday
Aside from these factors, a crash – and with it a safety car or red flag – also appears to be a distinct possibility in Madrid, meaning Lady Luck could play an even bigger role than any of the factors teams can rationally account for.
Teams need to be prepared for different scenarios, which is why some outfits have deliberately saved tyres on Friday and Saturday. In the event of an early red flag or safety car, they want to be able to switch to a new set of hard tyres, while in the event of a late crash they would prefer to make an additional pitstop for new softs or mediums.
That is precisely why the Ferrari drivers completed Q1 on mediums, leaving them with a set of fresh softs for the race.
"I think they are more relaxed," Pirelli’s head of motorsport Dario Marrafuschi said about that. "That was a choice, in my opinion, thinking of possible neutralisations. So they have a new set of soft, maybe for the last stint in case of a neutralisation.
"If you start a normal race, our suggestion is medium-hard, but in case of a neutralisation in the last laps, they have a new set of softs. That will be a great advantage, even though overtaking is difficult anyway."
Motorsport.com ·
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