汉密尔顿夺法拉利首杆，关键在排位前的轮胎准备
汉密尔顿在墨西哥站排位赛后表示，他为法拉利拿下的首个杆位“等了太久”。文章指出，这次突破的关键不在空气动力学升级或赛道特性，而在于最后一轮排位赛开始前对轮胎温度的处理。
刘易斯·汉密尔顿在排位赛后通过车队无线电表示，他为法拉利拿下的首个杆位“等了太久”，当时他正返回维修区。
但在法拉利常常未能在周六把有希望的圈速转化为硬成绩的一年之后，他和法拉利终于兑现的原因颇有意思。
这次突破的关键不是一次重大的空气动力学升级，也不是一条对法拉利格外有利的赛道布局——相比其他场地，这里并未给法拉利更多优势。
相反，答案在于最后一轮排位赛尚未开始之前所做的准备。
正如法拉利太多次遇到的情况那样，要让赛车的轮胎进入排位赛正确的操作窗口一直都很艰难。
众所周知，SF-26 对轮胎较为温和，这在正赛中想要保持轮胎低温时会带来好处。但在排位赛中，当你想要快速提升轮胎温度时，这反而会更具挑战性。
排位赛的挑战还在于确保前后轴的温度保持良好平衡——这样你就不会因为过于激进，导致前轮温度合适但后轮过热。
汉密尔顿说：“很多时候，你会觉得‘前轮在1号弯还没进入状态，但后轮已经好了’。”
“接着前轮开始进入状态，后轮却开始衰退。你就在这种不断的拉锯中挣扎。有时候你出最后一个弯开始飞驰圈时后轮还没准备好，但到了圈末它们反而更好了。有时候它们又准备得过头了。
“所以，要找到那个平衡点，我跟你说，就像大海捞针。老实说，这真的非常、非常、非常难找。”
不过在墨西哥，找到那根针正是他与队友夏尔·勒克莱尔之间的差距所在——关键在于要让轮胎在飞驰圈开始时升温足够，同时又不能让橡胶在关键的最后一个计时段过热。
汉密尔顿在出场圈的做法非常有条理。工程师为他倒计时，他缓缓驶出维修区，然后加速、减速、再加速，在准备圈的前段他在直道上猛烈地来回摆动轮胎——但在弯道里却小心翼翼。
他的第一个飞驰圈并不理想，因为他的轮胎在第一段似乎没有处于完美的工作窗口。他从2号弯开始损失时间——随后在4-6号弯以及11号弯进一步落后。
在他的第二个出场圈中，汉密尔顿驶出维修区时更具侵略性，并且在每条直道上都使用了更多的油门。他在开始飞驰圈之前，在体育场路段也稍微更加谨慎。
最终结果似乎是轮胎平衡略有不同，在开头的几个弯道中表现不那么好——因为他在出3号弯时比之前的努力慢了大约0.150秒。
但在那之后，通往4号弯的下坡路段上更好的加速让他追平了差距，并且轮胎处于完美的工作窗口，因为他以足够的优势完成了这一圈，拿下了杆位。
汉密尔顿没有透露他具体做了什么来拉开差距，但他表示自己不得不调动全部经验。
“我觉得我能够用上几个我已经大约13年没用过的工具，”他说。
“我在那个出场圈就把轮胎带到了完美的工作窗口。一旦我通过1号、2号和3号弯，从那里开始就挺顺畅了，说实话，我觉得我在任何地方都没有损失时间。”
完美的出场圈正是队友夏尔·勒克莱尔未能做到的，他之后明显感到恼火，因为最终只排在发车格第三位，白白浪费了一个好机会。
他在第三节排位赛（Q3）的第一轮飞驰圈曾暂时占据榜首，而在此之前，他曾对前方汉密尔顿出维修区后缓慢行驶、迟迟不加速表达了些许不满。
“他到底在干什么？”勒克莱尔在车队无线电中问道，他一度不得不在直道上刹车。
第二轮飞驰圈，勒克莱尔刻意与队友拉开了一些距离，以免因前方慢速驶向1号弯、为轮胎升温的节奏而吃亏。
他的第二个准备圈激进得多——进入1号弯时速度超过270公里/小时，而跟在汉密尔顿身后时约为230公里/小时。他在第一组连续弯道直至4号弯的速度也同样更快。
准备工作很干净，看起来他已经让轮胎为飞驰圈的开始充分升温了。他在第一段连续弯角中快了0.150秒，在出6号弯时快了0.1秒。
但随后这一圈就崩了，他在6号弯和7号弯之间损失了大量时间——这表明后轮正在升温并失去抓地力。
他在9/10/11号弯的连续弯段中极其激进地驾驶，挽回了一点时间，这引发了一次侧滑，但这似乎让他的轮胎更加过热——意味着他的所有优势从体育场路段开始全部流失。
勒克莱尔知道自己搞砸了，赛后他在车队无线电中痛骂这圈“非常烂的一圈”，以及一辆“与正常一圈相比相当不同”的赛车所带来的影响。
他还暗示，自己对事情的处理方式“非常恼火”。
在排位赛后的新闻发布会上，勒克莱尔没有进一步提及他恼火的具体原因——而是明确表示，他更生自己的气。
“我就是做得不够好，”他说。“是的，轮胎准备相当关键。整个排位赛中，我有点难以在出圈时保持同样的条件。
“但说到底，当我在Q3第二轮有一个干净出圈时，我没能完成任务。所以我只能生自己的气。”
也许没有比乔治·拉塞尔更好的例子来说明充分准备和完美执行带来的收益了，他自己都对那一圈感到困惑，那圈距离杆位仅差0.009秒，让他占据了发车格第二的位置。
整个周末，拉塞尔对升级后的梅赛德斯赛车都感到不太舒服，而且在排位赛早期阶段情况看起来也不妙，当时他的车队采用了双圈准备的策略。
由于那没有奏效，拉塞尔选择改变战术，在最后一轮直接发起攻击——这释放出了连他自己都无法解释的速度。
“这有点像我本赛季的缩影，”他说，“我觉得这感觉就像我从未跑过一圈中规中矩的圈。要么是糟糕的一圈，要么是非常强劲的一圈，这挺令人沮丧的。”
“我觉得整个周末在Q3之前，没有一圈让我看起来能争夺前三，更不用说杆位了。但最后一圈真的整合得很好。我很想知道确切原因，但我没有那些答案。”
这也让拉塞尔惋惜最小的细节。由于为两圈准备圈加注了燃油，梅赛德斯赛车携带了超过所需的负载——而额外的重量很可能让他损失超过最终丢掉杆位的0.009秒差距。
“你总是会回想，要是我们只带一圈的燃油而不是多带一圈的燃油，我们本可以拿到杆位，”他说。
正如汉密尔顿在夺杆时所展示的，如此微小的细节可能至关重要——甚至在排位圈开始之前就已如此。
英文原文
Lewis Hamilton said over the team radio after qualifying as he returned to the pits that his first pole position for Ferrari had been “such a long time coming”.
But after a year where Ferrari had too often failed to turn promising pace into a hard result on Saturday, the reason behind him and Ferrari finally delivering was an interesting one.
The key to the breakthrough was not a major aerodynamic update, nor a track layout that especially offered Ferrari any more of an advantage than it has had at other venues.
Instead, the answer was all about what was done before the final qualifying laps had even begun.
As Ferrari has found on too many occasions, it's been a struggle to get the car's tyres in the right operating window for qualifying.
The SF-26 is known to be easy on its rubber, which pays dividends in races when you want to keep tyres cool. But it can make it more of a challenge in qualifying when you want to fire tyres up quickly.
The challenge for qualifying is also about ensuring the temperatures are well balanced across both axles – so that you haven’t gone so aggressive that the fronts are sorted but then the rears are too hot.
“More often than not, you're like, 'the front tyre is not in for Turn 1, but the rears are'," said Hamilton.
“Then the fronts start coming in and the rears start going off. It's this constant seesaw you're having. Then sometimes the rears aren't ready as you come out of the last corner to start the lap, but then at the end they're better. Sometimes they're too ready.
“So, trying to find that balance, I'm telling you, it's like finding a needle in a haystack. And honestly, it's been very, very, very tricky to find.”
In Mexico however, finding that needle was the difference between him and team-mate Charles Leclerc – as it was about firing the tyres up enough for the start of the lap, without the rubber then overheating too much for the critical final sector.
Hamilton’s approach on the outlap was very methodical. Given a countdown by his engineer as he emerged slowly out of the pits before accelerating, slowing and then accelerating again, Hamilton weaved aggressively on the straights early in the prep lap – but tiptoed around the corners.
His first flying lap was not ideal, as his tyres did not seem in the perfect window in the first sequence. He started losing time from Turn 2 – and then fell back further through Turns 4-6 and then Turn 11.
For his second outlap, Hamilton was much more aggressive coming out of the pits and used much more throttle on each of the straights. He was also a bit more cautious in the stadium section before starting the lap.
The end result appears to have been a slightly different tyre balance where it wasn't as good through the opening corners – as he was around 0.150 seconds off his earlier efforts coming off Turn 3.
But after that, better acceleration on the run down to Turn 4 drew him equal and the tyres were in their perfect window as he finished the lap with enough to take pole.
While not offering any specific details on what he did to make the difference, Hamilton said he had had to call upon all his experience.
“I think I was able to utilise a couple more tools that I've not used for like 13 years,” he said.
“I just got the tyres in the perfect window on that out-lap. Once I was through Turns 1, 2 and 3, it was kind of smooth from there, and I just don't think I lost any time anywhere, to be honest.”
The perfect outlap was something that team-mate Charles Leclerc failed to nail, as he was left clearly annoyed afterwards about having thrown away a good opportunity as he ended up third on the grid.
His first run in Q3, which had given him the provisional top spot, had come after he had expressed a bit of annoyance about Hamilton ahead of him having come out of the pits so slowly before accelerating.
“What the hell is he doing?” asked Leclerc over the team radio who had to brake on the straight at one point.
For the second run, Leclerc gave himself a bit of distance to his team-mate to not get caught out with a slow run down to Turn 1 to fire the tyres up.
His second preparation lap was much more aggressive – he ran into Turn 1 at more than 270km/h compared to around 230km/h when behind Hamilton. He was equally quicker through the first sequence of corners and up to Turn 4.
The preparation was clean and it seemed he had got the tyres well fired up for the start of the lap. He was 0.150 seconds up through the first sequence of corners, and a tenth up coming out of Turn 6.
But the lap fell away then as he lost a bunch of time between Turns 6 and 7 - suggesting the rears were getting hot and losing traction.
He regained a bit going super aggressive through the Turn 9/10/11 sequence, which triggered a slide, but that seemed to overheat his rubber even more – meaning all his advantage bled away from the stadium.
Leclerc knew he had blown it as he lambasted the “very shit lap” over the team radio afterwards, as well as the impact of a car that was “quite a bit different with a normal lap”.
He also suggested he was “really pissed “ with how things had been managed.
Speaking in the post-qualifying press conference, Leclerc did not make any further reference to what he was annoyed about – as he instead made clear he was more angry with himself.
“I just didn't do a good enough job,” he said. “Yes, tyre preparation is quite key. I kind of struggled to have the same conditions for my out-lap throughout the qualifying.
“But at the end of the day, when I had a clean out-lap in Q3, run two, I didn't do the job. So I can only be angry with myself.”
There was perhaps no better example of the gains that came from good preparation and perfect execution than George Russell, who baffled himself with a lap that came within 0.009 seconds of pole position to take second on the grid.
Russell has not felt comfortable with the upgraded Mercedes all weekend, and things had not looked good throughout early qualifying as his squad went for a double prep lap approach.
With that not working, Russell opted to switch tactics and go straight on the attack for his final run – and it unleashed pace that even he was at a loss to explain.
“It's a little bit of a story of my season,” he said. “I think this kind of feels like I've never done an average lap. It's either a terrible lap or a very strong lap, and this is quite frustrating.
“I don't think there was a single lap this whole weekend ahead of Q3 that I looked in the mix to even fight for the top three, let alone pole position. But that last lap just came together really nicely. I'd love to know exactly why, but I don't have those answers.”
It also left Russell rueing the smallest of details. Having been fuelled for a double prep lap, the Mercedes was carrying more load than needed – and that extra weight likely would have cost more than the 0.009 deficit he ended up losing pole by.
“You always think retrospectively, if only we had the one lap of fuel rather than the extra lap of fuel that we had, we could have been on pole,” he said.
As Hamilton showed in pulling off pole, such small details can be critical – even before the qualifying lap has even started.
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