梅赛德斯解释为何不指望安东内利在巴库复制“蒙扎2.0”
梅赛德斯副领队布拉德利·洛德表示，安东内利在阿塞拜疆大奖赛的回升表现难以与三周前蒙扎的夺冠相提并论，当时他从第19位发车最终获胜。
为什么梅赛德斯没有预料到安东内利会在巴库上演“蒙扎2.0”
与三周前在蒙扎夺冠的比赛相比，安东内利在巴库的复苏表现有些平淡——但梅赛德斯认为胜利本来就不在触手可及的范围内
梅赛德斯副领队布拉德利·洛德在谈到车手的复苏时表示，安东内利本来就不可能在F1阿塞拜疆大奖赛上上演“蒙扎2.0”
三周前，安东内利在意大利大奖赛上接受了引擎处罚，从发车格第19位起步，最终夺得了令人难忘的主场胜利。
这一次，一个技术故障让这位梅赛德斯车手在周四的练习中损失了赛道时间，他全天只跑了25圈——而大多数对手大约跑了45圈。随后在排位赛第一节，安东内利在一号弯重重撞上内侧护墙，赛车损毁无法修复，最终以第16位发车，为这场比赛埋下了难题。
这位二年级车手实际上在第一圈就丢掉了一个位置，随后才一路向前追赶。但与蒙扎不同——当时他在第16圈就已经升到第二位——安东内利在巴库直到第17圈才进入前十。他最终获得第五名，在安全车重启时基本避开了麻烦。
“你今天可以看到，他比拉塞尔的节奏稍微慢一点，即使他在干净空气里跑的时候也是如此，”洛德指出，“毫无疑问，这一方面是因为拉塞尔度过了一个极其强劲的周末，另一方面是他还没有完全找到与赛车的默契。显然他在第一节自由练习中损失了时间，一直在追赶，然后排位赛又发生了事故。
“当你在排位赛里真正把赛车的极限压榨出来的时候，车手才能真正感受到赛车的表现和状态。他缺少了那些参照点，但我认为重要的是不要带着‘这会是蒙扎2.0’的想法进入比赛。这里是巴库，是一条完全不同的赛道，超车难度不同，挑战也不同，他把自己面前的这场比赛跑得非常好。
“其实他在第一圈结束时排在第17位。所以最终能拿到第5名，凭借的不仅是直觉和远见——预判到重启后一号弯会发生事故，提前收油让其他赛车自己撞出去，他得以从中穿行而过，尽管被其中一辆哈斯赛车蹭到造成了一点损伤——这显示出他对全局的出色把握。
“所以我认为能回到第5名，而且没有犯任何错误——这也是很重要的一部分——是一次非常非常出色的逆袭，对接下来的比赛来说也是一个非常好的信号。”
安东内利确实比队友拉塞尔慢了不少，最具代表性的时段是第一次安全车之前的最后七圈，以及比赛收官阶段的最后八圈。在前一个时段，他平均慢了0.447秒，后一个时段则慢了0.619秒——而且双方使用的轮胎状况相近。
在排位赛失误之后，这位小将曾耐人寻味地表示自己“没什么可输的”，鉴于他在年度积分榜上的形势，这番话令人意外；但最终他还是为正赛选择了更谨慎的策略，并坦承自己“开得像他祖母一样”。
当被问及拉塞尔本赛季的第三个分站冠军，将他在车手积分榜上的差距从81分缩小到66分，是否会对安东内利造成心理压力时，洛德作何回应？
“我并不觉得这会有什么影响，”这位英国人回答说。“车手们会给自己设定很高的标准，并希望达到这些标准。这支车队最大的资产和优势之一，就是我们拥有两名有能力在最前方战斗的车手，他们能把赛车送上杆位，并奉献完美无瑕的分站冠军，而这正是车队实力的一部分。”
英文原文
Why Mercedes didn’t expect “Monza 2.0” from Kimi Antonelli in Baku
Kimi Antonelli’s Baku recovery was somewhat underwhelming when compared to its Monza race-winning drive three weeks ago – but Mercedes believes victory wasn’t within reach
Kimi Antonelli was never going to perform a “Monza 2.0” in Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord said regarding his driver’s recovery.
Three weeks ago, Antonelli took an engine penalty at the Italian GP and clinched a memorable home victory from 19th on the grid.
This time around, a technical issue cost the Mercedes driver track time in Thursday practice as he completed just 25 laps across the whole day – most of his rivals covered around 45. Then Antonelli hit the Turn 1 inside wall hard enough to terminally damage his car in Q1, ending up 16th on the grid and setting up a tricky race.
The sophomore actually lost a spot on lap one before fighting this way through the field. But unlike at Monza, where he was up to second place by lap 16, Antonelli only reached the top 10 on lap 17 in Baku. He eventually finished fifth, having stayed mostly out of trouble at the safety car restarts.
“You can see today he was a little bit off George's pace, even when he was running in free air,” Lord pointed out. “And no doubt that's down, for him, A, to George having an incredibly strong weekend, and, B, just not quite getting the feeling with the car. Obviously he lost that time in FP1, was playing catch-up, and then had the incident in qualifying.
“When you're really stretching the legs of the car in qualifying, it's when the drivers really get a feel for how it's performing and what it's doing. He was missing those reference points, but I think it was important not to come into the race thinking this is going to be Monza 2.0. It's Baku, it's a very different circuit, different overtaking difficulty, different challenges, and he drove the race that was in front of him really well.
“He actually came out of lap one P17. So to finish P5, to have the intuition and the foresight to know that accident was coming at Turn 1 at the restart, and to back out of it so that those other cars took themselves out and he was able to navigate through, albeit with a bit of damage from one of the Haases, showed a really good grasp of the big picture today.
“So I think to get back to P5 – not to make any mistakes as well, that was a big part of it – was a really, really strong recovery drive and a very good sign for the races to come.”
Antonelli indeed was significantly slower than team-mate George Russell, with the most representative moments being the last seven laps before the first safety car and the last eight laps of the race. He was 0.447s down on average in that first period, then 0.619s in the latter – always on similar tyres.
After intriguingly stating that he had “nothing to lose” following his qualifying mishap, which was surprising in light of the championship situation, the youngster eventually decided on a more cautious approach for the race and owned up to ‘driving like his grandmother’.
Might Russell’s third victory of the season, cutting his championship deficit from 81 to 66 points, take a psychological toll on Antonelli, Lord was asked?
“I don't really think it makes a difference,” the Briton replied. “The drivers are setting themselves their own high standards and they want to perform to those. One of the great assets and the great strengths of this team is we've got two drivers who are capable of fighting at the very front, putting the car on pole, delivering flawless race wins, and that's part of the strength of the team.”
Motorsport.com ·
内容来自公开信源，聚合内容版权归原作者与来源所有。