拉塞尔逼近安东内利，梅赛德斯备战更艰难的策略抉择
梅赛德斯车队领队托托·沃尔夫承认，随着乔治·拉塞尔状态回升、与队友基米·安东内利的冠军争夺差距缩小，车队在比赛中制定策略时必须更加谨慎，确保对两位车手都公平。
梅赛德斯为更艰难的策略抉择做好准备，因乔治·拉塞尔逼近基米·安东内利
车队领队托托·沃尔夫表示，由于两位争夺冠军的车手之间差距缩小，梅赛德斯一级方程式车队在比赛中的策略抉择上必须格外小心，不能偏袒任何一位车手。
梅赛德斯车队领队托托·沃尔夫承认，在乔治·拉塞尔重燃冠军争夺之际，车队必须在策略抉择上精准拿捏，确保对两位车手都公平。
在为适应2026年的新赛车而调整了驾驶风格之后，拉塞尔近几场比赛正逐渐找回最佳状态，而他在巴库站从杆位发车并一路领先夺冠的表现更是凸显了这一点。
他的胜利使队友安东内利的积分领先优势从81分缩小到66分，这位意大利车手从第16位一路追到第五名，将一次代价高昂的排位赛失误造成的损失降到了最低。
虽然这还不足以完全重新点燃冠军争夺战，但在至少还剩八个比赛周末的情况下，它至少让拉塞尔的夺冠希望从几乎不可能变成了不太可能。而且就在几周前几乎已经挥舞白旗投降的拉塞尔，如今也誓言要一场比赛一场比赛地继续战斗，努力重回争冠行列。
车队领队沃尔夫承认，缩小的分差也将迫使梅赛德斯在比赛中重新审视其比赛策略，因为车队希望继续公平对待两位车手。这意味着在某些情况下，车队必须权衡：为车手A做出最优策略选择，是否会损害车手B的机会。
"这会改变球队的运作方式吗？我认为从大局原则的角度来看，不会，因为我们希望给两位车手同等的机会，去争取一个冠军，"沃尔夫在吉隆坡石油双塔举行的赛前新闻发布会上说道，那里是梅赛德斯长期燃油和润滑油合作伙伴马石油的大本营。
“但车队利益永远排在第一位。这一直是梅赛德斯的理念。随着拉塞尔拿到大量积分，他显然已经缩小了与基米之间的差距。这意味着我们必须认真评估在赛道上对两辆赛车管理方式所做的决定，因为我们必须确保两位车手拥有同等的机会，在战略决策方面也是如此。
梅赛德斯本可以从迈凯伦去年类似的棘手处境中吸取教训。当时2025赛季的冠军争夺看起来是兰多·诺里斯与奥斯卡·皮亚斯特里之间的直接对决。但一系列错误的累积让红牛的马克斯·维斯塔潘重新回到了争夺之中，其中包括卡塔尔大奖赛：在早期安全车出动时，迈凯伦让两位车手都留在场上而没有分拆策略。与此同时，维斯塔潘和其他车手做出了显而易见的选择，进站换胎。那次失误让这位荷兰车手轻松取胜，把冠军悬念一直保留到了阿布扎比的收官之战。
沃尔夫补充道：“虽然你永远不可能做到完美，但还有一个额外的考量：赛季越接近尾声，我们与来自其他车队的直接竞争对手拉开的差距越大，这一点就越重要，也就是要看看我们是否需要在比赛过程中调整自己的思路。”
为了庆祝马来西亚国家石油公司的主场赛事自2017年以来首次重返一级方程式赛历（吉隆坡），梅赛德斯在W17赛车的涂装上增加了更多马石油的青绿色元素。
本周末的比赛正式名称为巴林大奖赛，原本定于四月举行的这站比赛因伊朗冲突而被取消，巴林方面承担了重新筹办比赛的大部分费用。
英文原文
Mercedes braced for tougher strategy calls as George Russell closes on Kimi Antonelli
A tightening gap between its two championship contending drivers means the Mercedes Formula 1 team will have to take extra care with its in-race strategy calls not to favour one driver over the other, says team boss Toto Wolff
Mercedes will have to thread the needle keeping its strategy calls fair to both drivers amid George Russell's title resurgence, team boss Toto Wolff has acknowledged.
After having to adapt his driving style to the new cars for 2026, Russell has been edging back towards his best form in recent races, accentuated by a dominant pole-to-flag victory in Baku.
His win cut team-mate Kimi Antonelli's championship lead from 81 down to 66 points, as the Italian recovered from 16th to fifth to limit the damage from a costly qualifying error.
While not going as far as fully reigniting the title battle, it has at least moved Russell's chances from near impossible to unlikely with a minimum of eight race weekends left to run. And a few weeks on from all but waving the white flag, Russell has also vowed to keep fighting his way back into the fight race by race.
That narrowing gap will also force Mercedes to carefully reconsider its in-race strategy, team principal Wolff accepted, as the teams wants to continue treating both drivers equally. That means that in certain situations, it will have to evaluate whether or not making the optimal strategy call for driver A would hinder driver B's chances.
"Does it change the dynamic? I think from the overarching philosopher's standpoint, not, because we want to give both drivers equal opportunity and to go for a championship," Wolff said at a pre-event press conference at the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the home of its long-time fuel and lubricant partner.
"But the team comes first. That has always been the Mercedes philosophy. With George scoring big points, obviously he's narrowed down the gap to Kimi. And that means we have to properly evaluate the calls that we make on track of how we manage the cars, because we need to make sure that they have the same opportunity, also when it comes to strategic calls.
Mercedes could take lessons from McLaren's similarly tricky position last year, when the 2025 title fight was looking like a straight fight between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. But a culmination of errors brought Red Bull's Max Verstappen back into the fight, including a Qatar Grand Prix in which both drivers were left out under an early safety car rather than splitting strategies. Meanwhile, Verstappen and others made the obvious call to stop for tyres. That blunder handed the Dutchman an easy win to take the title decider to the wire in Abu Dhabi.
Wolff added: "Whilst you can never get it perfect, there is this additional consideration that it's going to be more important the more we come to the end of the season, the wider we create a gap to our direct competitors from other teams, to see whether we need to adjust our thinking during the race."
Mercedes has added extra Petronas teal to the livery of its W17 to celebrate F1's return of the oil company's home race in Kuala Lumpur for the first time since 2017.
This weekend's race is officially known as the Bahrain Grand Prix, with the Bahrainis picking up the majority of the tab for recovering the race originally scheduled for April in Bahrain, but called off due to the Iran conflict.
Motorsport.com ·
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