梅赛德斯在阿塞拜疆的统治性表现与对手的困境
乔治·拉塞尔在F1阿塞拜疆大奖赛排位赛中以0.837秒的优势夺得杆位，创下2026赛季梅赛德斯对手的最大差距。维斯塔潘因动力问题仅列第八，汉密尔顿则因尾流缺失和轮胎问题排名第六。
乔治·拉塞尔在F1阿塞拜疆大奖赛中以0.837秒的优势夺得杆位，创下2026赛季梅赛德斯对手在排位赛中的最大差距。
即使只有一辆车进入Q3，梅赛德斯也成功打破了此前在赛季揭幕战澳大利亚大奖赛周末创下的0.785秒的基准。
无可否认，它在巴库拥有最好的赛车和动力单元组合，但它的对手们自己妥协了，使得差距比实际需要的更大，正如我们所解释的那样。
马克斯·维斯塔潘的红牛在第三次练习赛中排名第一，在排位赛前和排位赛期间看起来是梅赛德斯最接近的挑战者。
但这一挑战未能成为现实，维斯塔潘最终排名第八，落后杆位一秒半——这是他在Q3做出圈速时本赛季与杆位的最大时间差距。
他的回归队友伊萨克·哈贾尔成为红牛阵营的领先者，排名第四，比维斯塔潘快半秒多，维斯塔潘认为大部分差距可以用一个神秘的动力问题来解释。
“整个排位赛我们都动力不足，一直比伊萨克的车慢半秒，”维斯塔潘在排位赛后说。
“不管什么原因，我们不知道排位赛中为什么会发生这种情况。然后在Q3，最后一弯出来的中间那圈，我的电池没有充到100%，所以我不得不放弃那一圈。
“然后轮胎太冷了，因为你没有应有的速度，没有应有的动力。然后当我尝试最后一圈时，没有动力，轮胎太冷，还有黄旗，就是不行。”
维斯塔潘在Q3遇到了兰多·诺里斯失误引发的黄旗，这也影响了他，所以那1.5秒的差距远不能代表真实情况。
如果维斯塔潘能够将他最好的三个计时段拼在一起，差距将是1.014秒。如果Q3最后一圈干净，差距还会进一步缩小，刘易斯·汉密尔顿认为红牛在巴库拥有第二快的赛车。
“很遗憾……整个周末我们做得很好，我对赛车很满意，然后因为一些我无法控制的问题，在排位赛中一切崩溃了，”维斯塔潘说。
“这个赛季有点……有时候太脆弱了。”
红牛车手整个赛季都受到空气动力学退化问题的困扰，但维斯塔潘表示在巴库没有出现这个问题。
当被The 比赛问及他是否可能牺牲第八的发车位来更换新的动力单元时，维斯塔潘说：“首先需要弄清楚问题是什么。
“否则，如果明天（正赛）也要这样跑，那不会很有趣。走着瞧吧。”
维斯塔潘在排位赛中穿越起终点线的速度陷阱中在22名车手中排名第20（306.3公里/小时），比哈贾尔慢11公里/小时，比通过那里最快的汉密尔顿慢超过18公里/小时。
红牛车队负责人洛朗·梅基斯证实了维斯塔潘的说法，称他的赛车在排位赛中出现了问题，“随着比赛进行越来越严重”。
“这不仅带来了巨大的直线速度损失，还让我们的能量部署和轮胎准备工作变得非常复杂，”梅基斯说，他认为维斯塔潘的第八名在这种情况下“算是止损”，并补充说红牛将在夜间“更换故障部件”。
维斯塔潘并不是排位赛后唯一抱怨直线速度的车手。
卫冕世界冠军兰多·诺里斯似乎对阿塞拜疆大奖赛的困难有所准备，考虑到迈凯伦整体缺乏空气动力学效率，以及他认为自己的赛车相比奥斯卡·皮亚斯特里的姊妹迈凯伦赛车在直道上的特别劣势。
“伙计们说一切都在按预期工作，但当你看到落后榜首八十分之一秒时，很痛苦，”诺里斯说。“我们的时间损失在直道上。这是我们需要关注的另一个领域，因为我们在所有与直道相关的方面都比梅赛德斯差一步。
“整个周末我在车里都很舒服。我最后一圈犯了错误，付出了代价，但我在冠军争夺中已经到了必须争取杆位，或者拼死一搏的地步。当然，我为推得太猛付出了代价，但就是这样。
“这很艰难，尤其是我的车。我们必须理解为什么我基本上要比奥斯卡推得更狠，来弥补我的直线速度（劣势）。”
车队负责人安德烈亚·斯特拉表示迈凯伦正在调查诺里斯的劣势，并补充说：“这似乎与燃油喷射的行为有关，希望我们能够或者自适应系统应该能够在正赛中改善。
“看起来偶尔动力单元产生的动力会少一点。但这是一个特定现象；与动力单元的整体行为无关。”
迈凯伦为巴库带来了一套重要的升级，以提高赛车的效率——包括在蒙扎首次亮相的旋转后部‘H翼’的回归——但诺里斯显然觉得需要进一步的步骤才能让迈凯伦接近梅赛德斯。
“他们有一辆非常高效的车——多年来一直如此，”他补充道。“如果我们想在本赛季剩余的比赛中在任何直线速度赛道上具有竞争力，我们需要朝这个方向迈出一大步。
“但他们在所有弯道也有一辆好车。他们在所有领域都做得更好，动力单元和赛车。”
斯特拉同意。“虽然我们拥有相同的动力单元，但有一些差异，我认为公平地说，他们的整体套件、底盘、齿比、动力单元本身，在产生最高速度方面似乎更有效。”
汉密尔顿对法拉利的运行计划和‘愚蠢的轮胎’感到懊恼
汉密尔顿在Q3每次冲刺圈前疯狂的蛇行表明，让前胎升温是他争取更好发车位失败的一个因素。
“我在蛇行试图救我的命，但我仍然无法让这些愚蠢的轮胎工作，”他在最终排名第六后说。“真烦人。我们必须带回一些好轮胎。”
但轮胎温度并不能完全解释与杆位的差距，他最终落后拉塞尔1.3秒，落后法拉利队友查尔斯·勒克莱尔近半秒。
相反，最大的时间损失来自汉密尔顿发现自己在一列赛车的前面，因此没有尾流。
法拉利选择在Q3改变运行计划，做冲刺、冷却、冲刺圈，而不是跑一圈然后换轮胎。
但它的策略适得其反，因为汉密尔顿跟车时前面的赛车——比如两辆迈凯伦和卡洛斯·塞恩斯的威廉姆斯——都进站了，让开了道路。
当情况明朗时，汉密尔顿意识到自己在赛道上独自一人，落后拉塞尔超过25秒，只是在拖着队友查尔斯·勒克莱尔跑。
有一次，意识到发生了什么，汉密尔顿向车队询问该怎么办——但随后告诉他们不用担心，他会“看电视”。
根据汉密尔顿在FP3获得良好尾流并最终排名第三时了解到的情况，缺乏尾流代价非常大。
英文原文
George Russell's pole-winning margin at Formula 1's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, 0.837 seconds, marked the biggest defeat for Mercedes' rivals in a 2026 qualifying session.
Even with just one car in Q3, Mercedes managed to beat its previous benchmark, of 0.785s, from the season-opening Australian GP weekend.
It undeniably has the best car and power unit package in Baku, but its rivals compromised themselves, making that gap bigger than it needed to be, as we explain.
Max Verstappen's Red Bull topped final practice and was looking like Mercedes’ closest challenger ahead of - and during - qualifying.
But that challenge failed to materialise, with Verstappen ending up eighth and a second and a half away from pole - his biggest time gap to pole of the season when he has set a lap in Q3.
His returning team-mate Isack Hadjar ended up as the lead Red Bull, in fourth, over half a second clear of Verstappen, who believed the majority of the gap could be explained by a mysterious power issue.
"The whole qualifying we were down on power, it was consistently half a second down to Isack's car," Verstappen said after qualifying.
"For whatever reason, we don't know why that happened in qualifying. Then in Q3, the middle lap coming out of the last corner, my battery didn't go to 100%, so I had to abort that lap.
"And too cold tyres then, because you don't have the speed, you don't have the power that you should have. Then when I tried on my final lap, with no power, the tyres [being] too cold and a yellow flag, it's not happening."
Verstappen encountered the yellow flags for Lando Norris's off in Q3, which also compromised him, so that 1.5s gap was far from representative.
If Verstappen had been able to put his three best sectors together, that deficit would have been 1.014s. That gap would have been reduced further with a clean final Q3 lap, with Lewis Hamilton believing Red Bull has the second-fastest car in Baku.
"It's a shame...the whole weekend we're doing a good job, I'm happy with the car and then it all just falls apart in qualifying because of problems out of my control," Verstappen said.
"It's a little bit this season...it's a bit too fragile at times."
The Red Bull drivers have suffered from an aerodynamic degradation issue all season but Verstappen said this wasn't present in Baku.
Asked by The Race if he might sacrifice his eighth place on the grid to take a new power unit, Verstappen said: "First just need to figure out what it is [the problem].
"Otherwise, if you have to run with that also tomorrow [in the race], it's not going to be a lot of fun. Let's see."
Verstappen did rank 20th out of 22 drivers in the speed trap (306.3km/h) across the start/finish line in qualifying, 11km/h down on Hadjar and over 18km/h down on Hamilton, the fastest driver through there.
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies confirmed Verstappen's comments, saying his car developed an issue during qualifying that "got worse as the session went on".
"Not only did it bring a large straight-line speed deficit, but it also made our life very complicated with energy deployment and tyre preparation," said Mekies, who felt Verstappen's eighth place was "sort of a damage limitation" in the circumstances and added that Red Bull would "change the faulty parts" overnight.
Verstappen wasn't the only driver complaining about straightline speed after qualifying.
Reigning world champion Lando Norris seems resigned to a difficult Azerbaijan GP considering McLaren's overall lack of aerodynamic efficiency and what he perceives to be a particular straightline deficit on his car compared to the sister McLaren of Oscar Piastri.
"The guys say everything's working as expected, but when you see eight tenths to the top, it's painful," said Norris. "Our time losses are in the straights. That's another area we just need to look at, because we're just a step worse to Mercedes in everything straightline-related.
"I've been comfortable in the car the whole weekend. My last lap I made a mistake and I paid the price, but I'm at a point in the championship where I kind of have to go for pole, or I kind of die trying. Of course, I paid the price for pushing too much, but it is what it is.
“It's been tough, especially with my car. We have to understand why I'm basically having to push more than Oscar to try and make up for my straightline speed [deficit].”
Team principal Andrea Stella said McLaren was investigating Norris's deficit and added: "It seems to be linked to the behaviour of the fuel injection, something that hopefully we will be able to or the adaptive systems should be able to improve [for the race].
"It looks occasionally [like] the power unit generates a bit less power. But this is a specific phenomenon; it's nothing to do with the overall behaviour of the power unit."
McLaren has brought a significant suite of upgrades to Baku, in an attempt to improve the car's efficiency - including a return for its revolving rear 'H-wing' that debuted at Monza - but Norris clearly felt further steps are needed to put McLaren in range of Mercedes.
"They have a very efficient car - they always have done for years," he added. "We need to take a big step in that direction if we want to be competitive in any straightline speed track for the rest of the season.
"But they also have just a good car in all the corners as well. They're just doing a better job in all areas, power unit and car."
Stella agreed. "While we have the same power unit, there's a few differences and I think it's fair to say that their package, chassis, ratios, power unit itself, it just seems to be more effective when it comes to generating top speed."
Hamilton rues Ferrari run plan and 'stupid tyres'
Hamilton's furious weaving before each of his push laps in Q3 highlighted that getting temperature into his front tyres was a factor in his challenge for a better grid slot falling away.
"I was weaving to try and save my life, and I still couldn't get these stupid tyres working," he said afterwards after he ended up sixth. "Such a pain in the ass. We've got to bring back some good tyres."
But tyre temperatures did not explain the full deficit to pole position as he ended up 1.3s adrift of Russell and nearly half a second behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Instead, the biggest time loss came from Hamilton having found himself running at the front of a train of cars so he was left without a slipstream.
Ferrari opted to change its run plan for Q3, doing push, cool, push laps rather than having a run and then changing tyres.
But its strategy backfired when cars Hamilton was running behind in the train - such as the two McLarens and Carlos Sainz's Williams - all were stopping, so got out of the way.
By the time things had shaken out, Hamilton had realised he was alone on track, more than 25 seconds behind Russell and simply towing his team-mate Charles Leclerc around.
At one point, realising what was happening, Hamilton asked his team for advice on what to do - but then told them not to worry as he would "look on the TV".
Based on what Hamilton had learned when he got a good tow in FP3 as he ended up third, the lack of a slipstream was very costly.
The Race ·
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