F1阿塞拜疆大奖赛首日：车手合约动态与2027年规则反响
在F1阿塞拜疆大奖赛首日，围场内传出车手合约动态：一份车手合约获得延长，另一份合约看起来即将结束。同时，各方对F1 2027年的两项重大选择作出了反应。
两个故事——一个已经公布，另一个正在发展中——在阿塞拜疆大奖赛前帮助填补了2027年F1车手市场中的几个空缺。
再加上车手们对最近宣布的摩纳哥冲刺赛的反应、一个意外到来的技术升级，以及梅赛德斯和法拉利的引擎罚退更新，这让F1围场里的这个周三出人意料地充满新闻。
以下是我们从这个提前开始的巴库周末到目前为止了解到的情况。
迈凯伦在巴库继续其激进的升级推进，作为将在FP1期间评估的套件的一部分，侧箱经过了大幅修改。
这发生在匈牙利和荷兰大奖赛周末期间引入的重大空气动力学升级之后，这两个周末分别位于八月休赛期两侧，同时也是修订版H翼在蒙扎首次亮相赛道，这个部件在两周前的马德里站被从车上取下后，本周末将重新出现。
侧箱经过重新塑形，向后延伸时呈现出非常不同的向下斜坡形状，这更接近法拉利和梅赛德斯的设计。此外还有一个经过修订、更垂直的进气口形状，类似于奥迪的设计。——Edd Straw
巴库的长直道意味着它是车手接受引擎更换处罚的理想地点，这就是为什么这个选项仍然在法拉利和勒克莱尔的考虑范围内。
但在梅赛德斯那边，制造商及其车手拉塞尔已决定再等一段时间，才将最后一个动力单元加入池中。
正如之前所暗示的那样，Russell 最后一次动力单元更换的时机被安排为与 梅赛德斯 即将在不久后某个时间点引入的 额外开发与升级机会步骤相吻合。10月下旬在 Austin 举行的美国大奖赛将是一个合乎逻辑的举办地点。
从 Russell 的角度来看，现在接受发车位罚退，然后在几场比赛之后当更好的部件到来时又面临另一次罚退，是毫无意义的。
有人猜测 梅赛德斯 的 ADUO 升级将围绕涡轮增压器展开，而 Russell 本人在 Baku 几乎证实了这一点，当时他说他不得不等待，因为在排位赛中发生故障后，他不得不在 Hungary 额外使用了一个涡轮增压器。
“这有点复杂，”他说。“但长话短说，如果我现在拿了一个，我就不得不再拿一个。”—— Jon Noble
...而 Hamilton 的引擎可能已经“赢得了一场比赛”
我们正处于赛季的这个阶段：大多数 F1 车队都在拼命计算，他们的车手在动力单元上剩余的里程是否足以坚持到赛季结束，而无需接受发车位罚退。
对于一些人（例如 Russell）来说，这种命运不可避免，因此关键在于选择最佳时机来执行。
汉密尔顿 在最近几周也处于类似境地，因为看起来如果不进行更换，他将无法坚持到本赛季结束。
但在阿塞拜疆大奖赛之前，汉密尔顿透露，他在西班牙大奖赛早早退赛的阴云中还有一线希望。这次退赛减少了他最新动力单元上的里程数，足以让他现在有可能用现有的装备撑到赛季结束。
“我‘多赚’了一场比赛，所以我认为应该没问题，”他在巴库说道。
然而，他表示，如果法拉利得出结论认为新引擎带来的额外性能超过了任何发车位处罚的负面影响，那么可能会采取战术性决定。
“自然，对于引擎来说，从全新到完成几场比赛后，性能上会有差异，所以我们会在今年晚些时候做出那个决定，”他说。
队友勒克莱尔也是迟早需要一台新引擎的人之一。他正在权衡何时接受罚退最为合适，而他在本周末的巴库就选择这么做也并非不可能。
不过对他来说一个好消息是，他那台最新ADUO 2规格的蒙扎引擎现在已经回到他的引擎池中，可以随时使用。—— JN
据The 比赛的Scott Mitchell-Malm报道，埃斯特班·奥康预计将在年底被哈斯车队放弃，不会获得续约合同——这让他在继续自己已近200场大奖赛的F1生涯方面选择有限。
虽然奥康目前占据的席位尚未正式确定人选，但The 比赛了解到，法拉利F2争冠青训车手拉斐尔·卡马拉处于领先位置——而且奥康看起来甚至连第二选择都不是。
奥康在周三的发言确实像一位知道自己与当前车队没有共同未来的车手，他称自己为“自由身”，并反复回避关于在哈斯继续任职的问题。
而且他显然感到委屈，因为哈斯在两辆赛车于每个比赛周产生一致、相等负载方面的问题有据可查。
“今年我的表现不是问题。每次我拿到有竞争力的赛车时，我都发挥出来了，”他说。——瓦伦丁·霍鲁恩日伊
红牛的新秀无法对哈贾尔的交易提出异议
近年来，在红牛二队中，像Arvid Lindblad这样健康的新秀赛季通常意味着立即晋升到主队——这在很大程度上是因为维斯塔潘一直在摧毁任何与他搭档的队友。
但Lindblad最早也要等到2028年才能获得晋升。尽管他认为哈贾尔在主队的续约“比正常情况稍早了一些”，但他表示自己无法质疑这一决定。
“完全归功于Isack，他可能是过去八年中第一位在红牛作为第二车手表现出色的车手——所以也祝贺他，他获得了提前宣布的安心感，”Lindblad承认道。
“对我自己来说，这并不是我真正考虑的事情；我非常专注于自己，我知道自己正在走的道路和轨迹。我对自己目前的位置非常满意。”
小红牛 队友 劳森 表示，接替 Hadjar 席位的可能性对他来说也从未真正成为一个话题——即使在他最近几场比赛中令人印象深刻地替补出战 红牛 之后也是如此——而且 Hadjar 的新合同“并不令人意外”。- VK
威廉姆斯全年直到现在都超重。至关重要的是，阿尔本 已确认，由于引入两个全新底盘，赛车不仅达到了 768 公斤的最低重量限制，实际上还低于这一标准。
这使威廉姆斯能够携带压舱物，这对于微调重量分配很有用。
“今年到目前为止，我们一直承受着相当大的重量惩罚，”Albon 说。“进入这个周末，我们在车上装了压舱物，所以你可以想象，在很多方面都会有巨大的[性能]提升。重量本身是件大事，而重量是圈速的保证，所以这就是为什么我们知道，无论空气动力学方面表现如何，这都会是很好的一步——但这是一次很好的升级。”
赛季开始时，威廉姆斯FW48被认为超重约28公斤。虽然在随后的比赛中这一重量被逐渐削减，但需要新底盘来实现大部分的减重。
这一点，加上空气动力学升级，预计将给威廉姆斯带来显著的性能提升。本赛季威廉姆斯平均是第九快的赛车，但最近已滑落至第十，落后于有所改进的阿斯顿·马丁-本田。
然而，正如阿尔本所指出的，这是一次“在任何其他年份都会是巨大”的升级，但鉴于整个围场的整体发展速度，它相对而言并不像通常那样是一次巨大的跨越。
尽管如此，他表示“这肯定能让我们重新回到与那个集团竞争的行列”——即使队友卡洛斯·塞恩斯给出了悲观的评价：“即使有所有这些升级，我们仍然会难以冲出Q1，也难以跻身Q2前列。”
英文原文
Two stories - one that's been announced, and another that's developing - have helped fill in a couple more gaps in the 2027 Formula 1 driver market ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Throw in drivers' reactions to the recently announced Monaco sprint race, the arrival of an unexpected tech upgrade, and engine-penalty updates at Mercedes and Ferrari, and it's been a surprisingly newsworthy Wednesday in the F1 paddock.
Here's what we've learned so far from this early-starting Baku weekend.
McLaren is continuing its aggressive upgrade push in Baku, with dramatically revised sidepods as part of the package it will evaluate during FP1.
This follows the major aerodynamic upgrade introduced across the Hungarian and Dutch GP weekends either side of the August break and the first on-track appearance of the revised H-wing at Monza, a part that will reappear this weekend having been taken off the car for the Madring two weeks ago.
The sidepods have been reshaped to have a very different downward ramp shape as they travel rearwards, which is closer to the Ferrari and Mercedes designs. There's also a revised, more vertical inlet shape similar to the Audi design. - Edd Straw
Baku's long straights mean it is an attractive place for drivers to take engine change penalties, which is why that option remains on the radar for Ferrari and Charles Leclerc.
But over at Mercedes, the manufacturer and its driver George Russell have committed to waiting a bit longer to add the final power unit to the pool.
As has been hinted at before, the timing of Russell's final power unit change is planned to coincide with an ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) step that Mercedes will introduce at some point soon. The United States GP at Austin in late-October would be a logical place for it.
From Russell's perspective, there is no point taking a grid drop now only to then face another one a few races down the road when the better parts come along.
There has been speculation that the Mercedes ADUO upgrade will revolve around the turbo, something that Russell himself all but confirmed in Baku when he said he was having to wait because he had to take an extra one in Hungary after a failure in qualifying.
"It's all a bit complicated," he said. "But long story short, if I took one now, I would have had to have taken another one." - Jon Noble
...and Hamilton's engine might've 'gained a race'
We are at that stage of the season where most F1 teams are furiously trying to work out if their drivers have enough miles left in their power units to get to the end without the need for a grid drop penalty.
For some (such as Russell) that fate is unavoidable, so it is a matter of picking the best time to do it.
Lewis Hamilton had been in a similar situation over recent weeks as it looked like he would not make it through to the end of the campaign without a swap.
But ahead of the Azerbaijan GP, Hamilton revealed that there was a silver lining to the cloud of his early Spanish GP retirement. The DNF reduced the mileage on his latest power unit enough to make it possible to now get through to the end of the campaign with what he has.
"I 'gained' a race, so I think it should be OK," he said in Baku.
However, he has suggested that a tactical call could come into play if Ferrari concludes that the extra performance a fresh engine gives outweighs the downside of any grid drop.
"Naturally with engines, from new to when they've done several races, there is a difference in performance, so we will take that decision later on in the year," he said.
Team-mate Leclerc is one of those who will need a fresh one at some point. He is weighing up when best to take a penalty, and it's not impossible he elects to do so in Baku this weekend.
One good bit of news for him, though, is that his Monza engine, of the latest ADUO 2 spec, is now back in his pool and available to be used. - JN
As reported by The Race's Scott Mitchell-Malm, Esteban Ocon is now expected to be let go by Haas at the end of the year without a renewal offer - leaving him with limited options to continue an F1 career that has already spanned nearly 200 starts.
While the seat Ocon currently occupies has not been filled officially, The Race understands Ferrari's Formula 2 title-contending junior Rafael Camara is in pole position - and it doesn't appear like Ocon is even second choice.
Ocon certainly spoke on Wednesday like a driver who knows there is no joint future with his current team, describing himself as a "free agent" and repeatedly deflecting questions about a continued employment at Haas.
And he clearly feels hard done by, given Haas's well-documented issues in the matter of its two cars producing consistent, equal load weekend to weekend.
"My performance hasn't been an issue this year. I've performed every time I had the [performing] car," he said. - Valentin Khorounzhiy
Red Bull's rookie can't argue with Hadjar deal
In recent years, a rookie season as healthy as the one Arvid Lindblad has enjoyed in Red Bull's second team has usually meant an immediate graduation to the main team - in large part because Max Verstappen has been demolishing anyone matching up against him as a team-mate.
But Lindblad will have to wait until 2028 at the earliest to get a promotion. And while he reckons Isack Hadjar's extension at the main team came "a little bit earlier than normal", he says he can't question the decision.
"Full credit to Isack, he's probably been one of the first drivers in the last eight years that has been performing well as the second driver in Red Bull - so also fair play to him that he gets that comfort of getting announced a bit earlier," Lindblad acknowledged.
"For myself, it wasn't really something I was thinking about; I'm very focused on myself, I know my own path and trajectory that I'm on. I'm very happy where I am at the moment."
Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson indicated that the prospect of taking Hadjar's seat was also never really a topic for him - even after his impressive stand-in stint at Red Bull in recent races - and that the new Hadjar deal is "not surprising". - VK
Williams has been overweight all year, up to now. Crucially, Alex Albon has confirmed that not only is the car on the minimum weight limit of 768kg thanks to the introduction of two brand-new chassis, but it is in reality below that.
This allows Williams to carry ballast, which is useful for fine-tuning the weight distribution.
"We've been carrying a substantial weight penalty this year so far," said Albon. "Going into this weekend, we've got ballast on the car, so you could imagine there's a big [performance] swing in many ways. The weight itself is a big thing and weight is a guarantee of laptime, so that's why we know it will be a good step regardless of how the aero side performs - but it's a good upgrade."
At the start of the season, the Williams FW48 was understood to be around 28kg over the weight limit. While that was whittled away at in the ensuing races, it required the new chassis to achieve the majority of the weight reduction.
That, combined with the aerodynamic upgrades, is expected to give a significant performance bump to the Williams, which has been the ninth-fastest car on average this season but lately slipped to 10th behind the improved Aston Martin-Honda.
However, as Albon has pointed out, this is an upgrade that "in any other year would have been a massive one" but that isn't as big a relative stride as it normally would be given the overall rate of development across the grid.
Nonetheless, he says "it's certainly going to get us back in contention with that group" - even if team-mate Carlos Sainz offered the downbeat verdict that "even with all the upgrades, we're still going to struggle to get out of Q1 and we're going to struggle to be at the top end of Q2".
The Race ·
内容来自公开信源，聚合内容版权归原作者与来源所有。