Notebook – Qatar Practice 2021
Red Bull and Mercedes topped a practice session each as the teams got to learn the Lusail International Circuit, near Doha ahead of the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix.
In the warmer FP1 session Max Verstappen was four-tenths ahead of Pierre Gasly with Valtteri Bottas four tenths off. As the sunset for FP2, it was Bottas who topped the time going two tenths ahead of Gasly with Verstappen three and a half tenths off in third.
Stewards reject Mercedes right of review
It may be a new weekend but the build up to Doha has been dominated by the Max Verstappen-Lewis Hamilton clash on Sunday in Sao Paulo. On Thursday, Mercedes and Red Bull faced the stewards after Mercedes believed they had significant new evidence into the case.
Mercedes had asked for the review on the basis that onboard camera footage from both cars had not been available when stewards made their decision not to investigate during the race.
Hamilton had tried to overtake Verstappen around the outside of Turn Four, take Verstappen around the outside of Turn Four but the Red Bull driver ran wide and both ended up off the track in the run-off area. The Mercedes driver passed Verstappen 11 laps later and went on to win, cutting his deficit to the Dutchman in the championship to 14 points.
The Brazilian Grand Prix stewards were reconvened to hear Mercedes’ request for a “right of review”.
They determined that the on-board camera footage did meet the tests required of it being “new”, “unavailable at the time of the decision” and “relevant” but they said it was not “significant”.
The ruling said: “There is nothing in the footage that fundamentally changes the facts. Nor even does this show anything that wasn’t considered by the stewards at the time.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said it was the “right decision”. While his Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff said the verdict was “completely expected”
Wolff says it was “more about the principle and the philosophy.”
The other area of tension between Mercedes and Red Bull, centres around the legality of Mercedes rear wing. Which Red Bull believe is lexing on the straights and giving a speed advantage. He refused to rule out making a protest against the Mercedes at one of the remaining races.
Horner said, “We just want to ensure these cars are being scrupulously policed and are in full compliance. If we believe the car is not in compliance, we will protest. The straight-line speeds we saw in Brazil, anyone can see was not a normal situation.”
Wolff denied that the wing was illegal, said the wing had been inspected by the FIA and that “there is nothing on it that Red Bull expects there to be”.
Both drivers brushed off the stewards’ decision to deny Mercedes’ request to review their Turn 4 incident in Brazil that was announced ahead of FP2.
Hamilton said “I don’t have any thoughts on it, because I was not a part of it, and [have] been focusing on trying to do my weekend.”
Verstappen added it was “nice” to have a decision through, but felt it was “also expected”.
Mercedes & Red Bull evenly matched
While Mercedes and Red Bull battled it out with the stewards and in the press, on track once again there appeared to be very little between them on track. Although my feeling is that Mercedes has the edge in the evening as Bottas was seven-tenths ahead of Verstappen.
You need to look at the gap between Hamilton and Verstappen in FP2, the Mercedes driver had the upper hand going six hundredths faster. In my view this is a more Mercedes circuit as its more open with flowing corners, where we seen them be quick this season.
However, after the session, Hamilton said he feels “a little bit slow” compared to the other teams at the front. Hamilton finished 0.7 seconds off Verstappen in FP1 and was over four-tenths off Bottas’s time in FP2, ending the day fourth in the timesheets.
Drivers have faced an added challenge in getting their set-ups dialled in on Friday as they have no previous data to work from in Qatar, with Hamilton admitting he still didn’t feel entirely comfortable.
Hamilton said. “I don’t even know how big the gap is, but I’m off. I’m definitely not close.”
He also said he had “no clue” if he would be going wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen again this weekend after their Brazil fight, adding: “As I said, I’m a little bit slow, so I need to figure that out tonight.”
Verstappen said that he also had more work to do overnight. He said, “It was the first time of course in the evening, so it was important to understand how the car would react.”
“[There was] quite a bit of a change between the medium and the soft tyre for me. That’s why I think on the soft tyre it wasn’t so amazing. But again, the first time here, so a lot of things to understand.”
Alpha Tauri
There have been a few races where Alpha Tauri has been a surprise mixing it up with McLaren and Ferrari, fighting for third in the constructors. These performances are largely thanks to Pierre Gasly who has emerged as the team leader, he was second in both practice sessions on Friday.
We have seen over the last eighteen months circuits like Lusail really suit the car and Gasly who has pulled out great results. Doha looks to be a circuit that suits the car because of its flowing nature and we are likely I think to see that continue. They know they aren’t really in the fight with McLaren and Ferrari.
However in the teams Friday debrief, chief race engineer Jonathan Eddolls said the team were quicker on the short runs but the longer runs were more challenging for the team.
Gasly said, “It’s been a very good Friday, the best of the season so far I’d say. Inside of the car it doesn’t feel that easy, but the lap times are looking really good. I think in terms of balance we can do even better for tomorrow, so we’ll try and work on that tonight.”
“Our target is of course to be as far up the grid as possible but we’re obviously realistic, we’re looking very competitive at the moment, so we’ll hope to be up there with McLaren and Ferrari again in Quali.”
Carlos Sainz believes that Ferrari’s biggest challenge will also be Alpha Tauri.
Ferrari v McLaren
The subplot this season has been the battle for third between McLaren and Ferrari, while neither team appeared to grab the headlines at Lusail on Friday they remained evenly matched at least in FP1. In that session Carlos Sainz was half a second ahead of Lando Norris, but Norris narrowed the gap to three tenths in FP2.
I believe both teams are about level in terms of pace, but we won’t know until qualifying. Ferrari I think are slightly further behind which is to be expected because this type of high speed fast flowing corners have been favourable to Ferrari. But Charles Leclerc looked to struggle with his quali sim in FP2, he confirmed.
He said, “first of all I really enjoy this track. On a quali lap it’s great and how much racing action, well see, but our day went quite OK. I think we went through all the things we wanted to test on this track, so this is good.”
“Mow it’s up to us to work well overnight to try and recover a little bit of quali time because yes, on the quali pace I think we are lacking a little bit of performance. But on the race pace it looks strong, so this is a good thing to take, but now we need to work on quali.”
Sainz was asked whether he agreed with Leclerc on Ferrari’s qualifying pace deficit, he replied: “Yes we have to, I mean especially on the soft tyre, we don’t look very comfortable at the moment; we are struggling with the front a bit and we need to find pace to make this tyre last through a whole lap and make it a bit stronger in the front axle because the long runs look good.”
No comments could be found at the time of going to press from McLaren