“The impression of having parachutes at the back”: Mercedes victim of aero drag

It seems far away, the improvement that had been glimpsed Mercedes in Barcelona. During the first two free practice sessions of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the W13s again suffered from a lot of bounce. If the latter are not a new thing, the Silver Arrows also have to deal with another problem in Baku: aerodynamic drag. On Friday, the Mercedes were among the slowest cars in the field on the straight.

According to the team boss, Toto wolff, the extreme aerodynamic concept of the Mercedes does not work on the streets of the Azerbaijani capital. “We have a car that has too much drag. Drivers said they felt like they had parachutes hanging behind the car. Drag and bounce are the two main problems we encounter on the straights. »

Mercedes is slower than Ferrari 2 tenths in a straight line, and more than a second compared to Alpine © F1

Asked at a press conference on Saturday morning about the power of the Mercedes engine, Toto Wolff rejects the idea of ​​a lack of power compared to competitors. “I think our engine engineers have done a good job understanding how we can optimize our software and power deployment since the start of the year. Our problem is not our engine. (…) In Barcelona, ​​we had a big rear wing and the car was very stable, we were among the fastest. »

Russell disappointed with Mercedes performance

At the end of Free Practice 2, George Russell (7th) and Lewis Hamilton (12th) finished respectively 1,3 and 1,6 seconds behind the best time of Charles Leclerc.

On the side of the ex-pilot Williams, the feeling is not optimistic following Friday. “It was a tricky day, we weren't as competitive as we would have liked. It's a difficult circuit to put the tires in the right window. You see with a number of drivers, their best laps came at the end of the session. Ferrari and Red Bull seemed to be able to be faster all the time. At the moment, they just have an inherently faster car than us. We did everything we could to try to catch up with them. »

George Russell believes that the delay made by Mercedes is so significant that nothing will be able to bring them back into the game. “Even if we are on top of our tires, we will not be able to close the gap because they are too far ahead. So that's probably 50% of our problems, the rest is just the lack of performance we have at the moment. »

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