Hardwood timber
The first two practice sessions of the Formula 1 season are in the books, and all ten teams are pouring through the data in search of improved lap times.
Friday’s two sessions were something of a mixed bag for Mercedes. While both George Russell and rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli showed strong pace on longer runs with the harder C3 and C4 tire compounds, their one-lap pace was off what their rivals showed on Friday. Russell finished FP1 in P7, while Antonelli was P14 on the timing sheets.
Both drivers slid back on the board in FP2, with Russell in P10 and Antonelli down in P16.
While those “headline” times show that Mercedes has some work to do ahead of qualifying on Saturday, the data from the longer runs is much more encouraging. During FP1 Russell ran an extended stint on the C4 medium compound, with times ranging from 1:22.194 to 1:23.341. Those lap times were a thin margin ahead of what Max Verstappen posted on a similar run on the same compound during FP1, as illustrated here thanks to F1 Tempo:
During FP2 Russell put together a longer run on the C3 hard compound, posting consistent times in the 1:21.739 to 1:22.244 range:
“It was an interesting first day of the season,” said Russell in the team’s post-session report. “We looked particularly quick on the Hard and Medium compounds, and the overall balance of the car felt strong.
“On the Soft tire, we didn’t improve as much as you might expect.
“That is something we will evaluate overnight but, with the track temperature over 40°C today, that may have played a part. It is encouraging that there is inherent pace in the car though, as we’ve seen on the C3 and C4 compounds,” added Russell. “Our focus is now unlocking that pace across all three tire compounds and hopefully we can do that tomorrow.”
Antonelli described Friday as a “positive” first day.
“It was a positive first day of the season. Overall, I was pleased with how everything went. I’m getting more and more confident with each lap and continue to build my learning,” said the rookie driver. “The long run in FP2 was good and gives us a strong platform for the rest of the weekend.
“We’ve got some work to do on the single lap to find a bit more performance; that is mainly linked to getting the tires in the right window and something we will focus on improving overnight. We’ve got plenty of data to work with to do that ahead of Saturday,” added Antonelli.
Andrew Shovlin, the team’s Trackside Engineering Director, praised the performance on the harder compounds but did note that the team needed to find more performance when it came to the “headline” times.
“The car was behaving well, particularly in the long run and the harder C3 and C4 compounds,” said Shovlin. “Looking at the headline times, we’ve got some work to do on improving our single-lap performance on the Soft compound ahead of Qualifying. We’ve already got some areas of focus though and are confident we can take steps to do that overnight.”
Neither Shovlin nor Antonelli were ready to make any predictions about the pecking order in Melbourne.
“It is slightly too early to make any predictions on our relative performance. We don’t know what the other teams are doing, and we were offset on tire strategy today,” said Antonelli. “The car was feeling good though and we will see what we can do in Qualifying tomorrow.”
“As was expected ahead of the weekend, it looks close between several teams at the front,” added Shovlin. “We were slightly offset with our tyre choice in FP2 so it’s hard to predict the relative order.
“What we can say though is that even small improvements will likely make a big difference.”