梅赛德斯巴库练习赛巨大优势或非真实实力
梅赛德斯在巴库周四两节练习赛中表现强势，拉塞尔两节均做出最快圈速，首位非梅赛德斯车手维斯塔潘落后0.827秒，但车队强调这一优势并不反映阿塞拜疆大奖赛的真实图景。
为什么梅赛德斯在巴库练习赛中的巨大优势可能并非真实情况
梅赛德斯强调，车队在周四练习赛中展现的巨大优势并不能真实反映F1阿塞拜疆大奖赛的实际局面。然而，几家对手车队却对此留下了深刻印象
梅赛德斯在周四于巴库城市赛道举行的练习赛上发出了非常强有力的宣言。乔治·拉塞尔在两节练习赛中均名列计时榜首位，当天结束时距离他最近的非梅赛德斯赛车落后接近一秒（马克斯·维斯塔潘落后0.827秒）。
梅赛德斯将于在马来西亚站为W17推出期待已久的升级套件，但即使车上没有新部件，拉塞尔的速度也给对手们留下了深刻印象。
红牛本周可以为小红牛22装上最后一份重大升级包，但技术总监皮埃尔·瓦谢承认，他没有预料到与梅赛德斯厂队之间会有如此大的差距。
“是的，我没料到会有这么大的差距，主要是在直道上。之后我们得分析一下这是不是来自尾流（tow）[或者其他原因]。但没错，要达到他们所取得的水平，我们还有工作要做”，当Motorsport.com问及这一差距时，瓦谢这样说道。
“我希望差距能更小一些，但看起来他们比我们快很多。我们会看看能做些什么让赛车更快，但如果这才是真实的差距，那对我们来说将会非常艰难。”
伊萨克·哈贾尔在重返驾驶舱后感觉身体状态完全没问题，但他担心梅赛德斯在周五和周六会真的让红牛望尘莫及。
“有一点吧，[而且也在想]他们为什么能领先这么多。我觉得这非常了不起。我认为我们有一辆不错的车，我们一直和迈凯伦以及法拉利处在同一集团里，但是没错，梅赛德斯，他们已经遥不可及了。”
不过，梅赛德斯自己还没有完全确信自己比其他所有人都高出一个级别。副领队布拉德利·洛德在本周末托托·沃尔夫缺席期间负责车队的运作，他强调车队绝对不应该高兴得太早。
“说实话，我不认为这个差距是有代表性的。我们在第二次自由练习中用软胎跑了更多带有计时的单圈。维斯塔潘只跑了一次，迈凯伦的车手们也一样。”
“可能不要对此过度解读，因为你每跑一个计时的单圈，圈速都在不断提升。我们比别人多跑了一圈，因此可能在赛道上和轮胎上挖掘出的潜力都比他们能找到的要多一些。”
话虽如此，拉塞尔在整天的练习中都显得相当有统治力。这位英国车手在马德里赛后总结称，他已经不再争夺总冠军，只能为分站冠军而战，但巴库比赛周的开始证明非常有希望。
“乔治去年在这里病得很厉害，但仍然拿到第二名。所以这条赛道……我的意思是，他在每条赛道表现都不错，但这是一条他传统上就有非常出色成绩的赛道”，洛德说。
“而且这正是作为一支车队你所希望看到的：如果一辆车遇到麻烦，另一辆就正好在前面领跑。他今天做到了，希望周末剩下的时间里能继续保持这种状态。”
当洛德提到“一辆车遇到麻烦”时，这些话自然是指基米·安东内利。这位积分榜领跑者在第一节练习赛中遭遇液压系统故障，损失了赛道时间——在街道赛道上，这一因素比平时更为重要。
勋爵继续说道：“显然，这让他稍微落后于节奏了，所以他只是缺少圈数、缺少在赛道上的时间，但同样，机械师们干得非常出色。我记得赛车是在一练结束后大约15分钟回来的，而在二练红旗出现的时候，车已经准备好可以出发了。所以他们完成了一项了不起的工作，换掉了引擎，把旧引擎拆出来，把新引擎装进去。
“不会受罚，因为这是备用池里已经有的引擎，而且我们当时已经准备好了。所以我们至少尽可能地挽回了一些练习时间。”
最终的结果是两辆梅赛德斯赛车占据了前两位，并且领先其他车手很大的差距。这给对手们留下了深刻印象，不过法拉利车队领队弗雷德里克·瓦塞尔淡化了周四这些成绩的意义：“我年纪太大了，没精力太关注周五的表现！”
当有人指出现在实际上还是周四时，瓦塞尔笑着总结道：“周五都没什么用，更别提周四了！”
英文原文
Why Mercedes’ huge Baku practice advantage may not be the real picture
Mercedes stresses that its enormous advantage during Thursday’s practice sessions does not show the true picture for the F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Several rivals, however, have been left highly impressed
Mercedes made a very strong statement during Thursday’s practice sessions at the Baku City Circuit. George Russell topped the times in both sessions, with the first non-Mercedes car almost a second adrift at the end of the day (Max Verstappen at 0.827s).
Mercedes will introduce its long-awaited upgrade package for the W17 in Malaysia, but even without new parts on the car, rivals have been highly impressed by Russell’s pace.
Red Bull can count on the final major upgrade package for the RB22 this week, but technical director Pierre Waché admits he had not expected such a large deficit to the Mercedes works team.
“Yes, I didn't expect this big gap, mainly on the straights. Afterwards we have to analyse if it's coming from a tow [or something else]. But yes, we have work to do to achieve what they have achieved”, Waché said when asked about the gap by Motorsport.com.
“I hope that it's closer, but it looks like they are a lot quicker than us. We will see what we can do to make the car quicker, but if this is the real delta, then it will be tough for us.”
Isack Hadjar, who felt completely fine physically on his return behind the wheel, fears that Mercedes will genuinely be out of Red Bull’s reach on Friday and Saturday.
“A bit, [and thinking] why they are so far away. I think that's very impressive. I think we have a good car, we've been in the mix with McLaren and Ferrari, but yeah, Mercedes, they are out of touch.”
Mercedes itself, however, is not yet fully convinced that it is a class above everyone else. Deputy team principal Bradley Lord, who is taking charge this weekend in Toto Wolff’s absence, stresses that his team absolutely should not celebrate too soon.
“I don't think it's a representative gap, honestly. We ran more timed laps on the soft tyre in FP2. Max only had one go, so did the McLarens.
“Probably don't read too much into it, because every timed lap you did, the lap times were improving. We did one more than everyone else, and therefore probably found a bit more in the track and a bit more in the tyre than they were able to.”
That said, Russell did look commanding throughout the entire day of practice. The Briton concluded in Madrid that he is no longer in the title fight and can only fight for race wins, but the start of the Baku race weekend has proved very promising.
“George was pretty sick here last year and still finished P2. So it's a circuit… I mean, he goes well at every circuit, but this is one where traditionally he's had some really strong results”, Lord said.
“And that's what you're looking for as a team, that if one car hits trouble, the other one's right up there and leading the way. He's done that today and hopefully can continue doing that through the rest of the weekend.”
When Lord mentions that “one car hits trouble”, those words logically refer to Kimi Antonelli. The championship leader suffered a hydraulic problem during the first practice session, costing him track time – a factor that is even more important than usual on a street circuit.
“Obviously it's put him behind the curve a little bit, so he's just missing laps and missing time out on track, but equally, it was a mega job from the mechanics”, Lord continued. “The car came back, I think, 15 minutes after practice, and it was ready to go just as the red flag came out in FP2. So they did an epic job to swap the engine, get the old one out and the new one in.
“No penalty, because it's one that's already in the pool, and yeah, we were ready to go. So we’ve at least salvaged as much of the session as we could.”
The end result is two Mercedes cars at the top with a large gap to the rest. That has impressed the competition, although Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur played down the significance of Thursday’s times: “I’m getting too old to pay too much attention to Friday!”
When it is pointed out that it is actually still Thursday, Vasseur concludes with a laugh: “Friday is useless, imagine the Thursday!”
Motorsport.com ·
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