梅赛德斯为何认为维斯塔潘在阿塞拜疆大奖赛像被弹力绳拉着
数据解析显示，阿塞拜疆大奖赛中每当拉塞尔在狭窄的中段拉开差距，维斯塔潘就会在直道上迅速追近，梅赛德斯因此形容他像被弹力绳拴住一样。
为什么梅赛德斯认为马克斯·维斯塔潘在阿塞拜疆大奖赛上像“被某种巨大的弹力绳拴住”
数据解析显示，每当乔治·拉塞尔在狭窄的中段拉开差距，马克斯·维斯塔潘就会在直道上追近
马克斯·维斯塔潘（红牛车队）、乔治·拉塞尔（梅赛德斯）
在阿塞拜疆大奖赛的上半程，由于维斯塔潘和伊萨克·哈贾尔驾驶的红牛难以超越奥斯卡·皮亚斯特里的迈凯伦，拉塞尔得以将对身后车群的领先优势扩大到10秒以上。
当第31圈亚历克斯·阿尔本（阿尔本）的威廉姆斯赛车在5号弯撞上护墙卡住后，安全车出动，局面骤然改变。拉塞尔的优势随着安全车把车流聚拢而化为乌有，而维斯塔潘则在重启时抓住机会超越了皮亚斯特里。
从那时起，尽管拉塞尔在大部分收尾圈里保持着略微更快的速度，但他始终无法甩开维斯塔潘。最后一圈瓦尔特利·博塔斯在15号弯冲出赛道，拉塞尔减速遵守事故现场的黄旗时，他的涡轮失去了增压，这使得维斯塔潘再次咬住他的车尾，并在冲线前上演了一次惊险的猛扑。
令人惊讶的是，在大多数圈次中，拉塞尔在第二计时段都比维斯塔潘快得多——该计时段从5号弯的刹车区开始，环绕旧城墙的紧凑路段，一直延伸到16号弯的刹车区。但维斯塔潘都能在直道上立刻追回来，即使他在前一圈并未足够接近，因而无法获得超车模式所提供的额外半兆焦电能回收与释放。
梅赛德斯一级方程式车队副领队布拉德利·洛德（Bradley Lord）生动地描述了这一幕，他说：“就好像马克斯被一根巨大的弹力绳拴在后面一样。”
马克斯·维斯塔潘（维斯塔潘），红牛车队；乔治·拉塞尔，梅赛德斯车队。
冲线时拉塞尔仅落后维斯塔潘0.196秒，这使它成为世界锦标赛历史上最接近的完赛成绩之一——不过这一数据受影响，因为直到近几十年计时系统才变得精确，之前相对粗糙。
“在最后一圈，你可以把电池的电量从满用到空，这样就不必为了下一圈而让电池包保持平衡，”洛德（Lord）说。
“所以把它揣在兜里备用是好事，因为在那段双重黄旗区域，差距已经从一秒半缩小到半秒。拉塞尔的增压输出也稍微下降了一些，这种情况有时会在车速降得太低、发动机转速也随之下降时发生。”
“但事实并非如此，就好像维斯塔普被一根巨大的蹦极绳拴住了一样。拉塞尔每圈在中段都能实实在在地比他快半秒。而你看GPS数据轨迹，当尾流把维斯塔普重新拉回来时，那条线几乎瞬间变成了垂直状。
“所以如果要说什么的话，他（维斯塔普）在没有使用超车模式时反而似乎比使用时获得的优势更多，这相当反直觉。不过尽管在电视画面上看起来非常接近——当然镜头在一定程度上压缩了距离——但从未有过任何一刻他接近到可以尝试进攻或考虑完成一次超车。
“所以我认为拉塞尔完全掌控了局面，尽管只要出现一个微小的失误，结果可能就会大不相同。他完成了一场绝对精彩的比赛。他说（比赛早些时候）自己蹭到了墙，但实际上这么做反而让他赢得了时间。显然，他连这一点都判断得恰到好处。”
从第39圈安全车时段结束起，维斯塔普仅在第42、43、44和48圈比拉塞尔更快——其中第48圈只快了三毫秒。就整圈用时而言，两人之间的差距很少超过0.1秒，不过在倒数第二圈，拉塞尔快了0.183秒。
阿尔本的撞车改变了比赛的走向。
以第48圈为例，遥测数据显示，维斯塔潘在起步阶段实际上比拉塞尔快约0.1秒，原因是在2号弯到3号弯之间的直道上短暂地快了17公里/小时——这很可能是使用了更多电力输出的结果。但拉塞尔能够更晚松开油门，把梅赛德斯的操控优势转化为3号弯和4号弯更快的弯心速度，立刻逆转了差距。
在第二计时段，拉塞尔在弯道较多的路段将优势扩大到最高0.420秒：5号弯进弯更晚松油门，带来更高的弯心速度，然后在驶向7号弯的路段达到更高的峰值速度，尽管维斯塔潘使用了一些电力增强来获得6号弯更快的出弯。而当维斯塔潘在13号弯到14号弯之间的路段凭借更高的尾速追近时，梅赛德斯底盘更易驾驭的特质再次在15号弯发挥了作用，拉塞尔在那里能更晚松油门，把差距重新拉大到0.583秒。
维斯塔潘获得了更快的出弯，一点点蚕食差距，但梅赛德斯在16号弯再次更快，把差距缩小到0.541秒。从那以后，当他们通过侦测点、解锁下一圈的超车模式时，维斯塔潘迅速吞噬了差距，比拉塞尔更早换入最高挡位——是在18号弯之前而不是19号弯之后——并在该圈余下的路段取得了略高的尾速。
一旦进入直道本身，维斯塔潘一路到终点线都比对手快约11公里/小时，因此尽管他在单圈早段损失了半秒，总时间却只慢了0.003秒。红牛的内燃机是围场中最强大的，这也是它位居国际汽联额外开发与升级机会（ADUO）框架首位的原因，但作为整体套件，梅赛德斯的动力单元仍被认为更为出色。
尽管如此，虽然维斯塔潘和红牛车队领队洛朗·梅基斯都不愿透露得到福特支持的动力单元究竟发挥了多大作用，但使用同一套动力单元的小红牛车手阿维德·林德布拉德形容它为“一枚火箭”。
考虑到维斯塔潘在跟在拉塞尔尾流中时，在两个直线模式区域都享有如此大的速度优势，红牛赛车在主动空气动力学部署时很可能特别低阻——其他车队无疑会对此进行深入研究，抱以极大兴趣。
英文原文
Why Mercedes thought Max Verstappen was "on some sort of massive bungee cord" in Azerbaijan GP
Data analysis shows that every time George Russell pulled out a gap through the tight middle sector, Max Verstappen closed in on the straight
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, George Russell, Mercedes
For the first half of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, George Russell was able to build a gap beyond 10 seconds to the chasing pack, as the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar struggled to pass Oscar Piastri's McLaren.
That picture altered abruptly when the safety car was deployed after Alex Albon's Williams became embedded in the wall at Turn 5 on lap 31. Russell's margin vanished as the safety car bunched up the field, and Verstappen seized the moment to pass Piastri at the restart.
From there, while Russell maintained marginally quicker for the majority of the closing laps, he was never able to shake Verstappen off. When Valtteri Bottas went off at Turn 15 on the final lap, Russell's turbo went off boost as he slowed to obey the yellow flags at the scene, enabling Verstappen to latch onto his tail again and set up a dramatic lunge to the tape.
What's remarkable is that on most laps, Russell was substantially faster than Verstappen through the second sector, which extends from the Turn 5 braking zone, around the tight section circumnavigating the old city walls, through to the Turn 16 braking zone. But Verstappen was able to come right back at him on the straight, even if he hadn't been close enough on the previous lap to access the extra half-megajoule of electrical harvesting and deployment granted by overtake mode.
Mercedes deputy Formula 1 team principal Bradley Lord described it in vivid terms, saying "it was like Max was on some sort of massive bungee cord".
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, George Russell, Mercedes
Just 0.196s separated Russell from Verstappen at the line, making this one of the closest finishes in world championship history – although that statistic is skewed by the relative crudeness of the timing systems until recent decades.
"On the last lap you can drain the battery from top to bottom so you don't have to keep the [battery] pack balanced for the following lap," said Lord.
"And so it was good we had that in the pocket because the gap had gone from a second and a half to half a second through that double yellow. George dropped off the boost slightly as well, which sometimes can happen when the car speed drops too low and the engine speed does as well.
"But no, it was like Max was on some sort of massive bungee cord. George would literally put half a second on him every lap through the middle sector. And you look at the GPS trace and suddenly it almost goes vertical as the tow pulls Max back in.
"So if anything it almost seemed he [Verstappen] was gaining more without overtake mode than with, which was quite counterintuitive. But even though it looked very close on the TV pictures and obviously they foreshortened things a little bit, there wasn't any point where he was close enough to make an attempt or to contemplate an overtake.
"So I think George had it all under control, albeit one tiny mistake and it could have looked pretty different. Just an absolutely fantastic job from him. He said he'd brushed the wall, [earlier in the race] but he actually gained time doing it. So clearly he judged even that perfectly."
From the end of the safety car period on lap 39, Verstappen was only quicker than Russell on laps 42, 43, 44 and 48 – the latter by three milliseconds. In terms of overall laptime they were rarely separated by more than a tenth, although Russell was 0.183s quicker on the penultimate lap.
Albon's shunt changed the direction of the race
Taking lap 48 as an example, the telemetry data indicates Verstappen was actually around a tenth of a second up on Russell early on, by dint of briefly being 17km/h faster on the stretch between Turns 2 and 3 – likely a factor of using more electrical deployment. But Russell was able to get off the throttle later and parlay the Mercedes' handling advantage into faster apex speeds at Turn 3 and 4, immediately inverting the deficit.
Through the second sector, Russell built his advantage to a peak of 0.420s through the twistier sections: later off the throttle into Turn 5, giving a higher apex speed, then hitting a higher peak speed on the run to Turn 7 even though Verstappen used some boost to gain a faster initial exit from Turn 6. And while Verstappen came back at him through the stretch between Turns 13 and 14, with a higher top speed, again the Mercedes' more biddable chassis made the difference at Turn 15, where Russell was able to dethrottle much later and pull the gap back to 0.583s.
Verstappen got a quicker exit, nibbling away at the gap, but again the Merc was quicker through Turn 16, taking the gap to 0.541s. From there onwards, as they passed the detection point unlocking overtake mode for the following lap. Verstappen simply ate up the gap, changing to top gear much earlier than Russell – before Turn 18 rather than after Turn 19 – and attaining a slightly higher top speed for the remainder of the lap.
Once on the straight itself, Verstappen was around 11km/h faster all the way to the line, hence his total time being just 0.003s slower despite losing half a second earlier in the lap. The Red Bull internal combustion engine is the most powerful on the grid, hence its position atop the FIA's Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) framework, but as a package the Mercedes PU is still believed to be superior.
Still, while Verstappen and Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies would not be drawn on how significant a role the Ford-backed PU made, Arvid Lindblad, whose VCARB uses the same unit, described it as "a rocketship".
Given how much of a speed advantage Verstappen enjoyed in both straightline mode zones when in Russell's tow, it's likely the Red Bull is particularly slippery when its active aerodynamics are deployed – something other teams will no doubt be examining with great interest.
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