New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nExpressed as a percentage difference to account for the sub-70-second lap, that\u2019s roughly the same advantage Mercedes had over McLaren in Spain and is only just under its season-average margin to the reigning constructors champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a clean and productive day for us,\u201d Antonelli enthused. \u201cFrom FP1 onwards, I\u2019ve felt comfortable in the car, which gave us a good platform to work from as we built through the sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n
George Russell, though, couldn\u2019t be quite as optimistic.<\/p>\n
Russell seemed unable to access much of his Mercedes\u2019s performance. The pre-season title favourite seemed to lack confidence through the corners, especially in the middle of the lap and the tricky downhill turn six and seven, where a 0.3-second difference exploded into more than half a second.<\/p>\n
The final two corners confirmed a 0.623-second deficit.<\/p>\n
The Briton proffered no real explanation for the difference, but deputy team boss Bradley Lord suggested it was just a matter of honing the set-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just trying to get the balance right, basically, and tuning that,\u201d he said. \u201cIt felt a little bit oversteery in the low-speed, and a little bit too understeery in the high-speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome work to do, but the long runs look strong, and we know George historically has been strong here, so I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be right there and on the pace come tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell looked relatively competitive during his race simulation, but he suggested that might not be worth much if he can\u2019t qualify well.<\/p>\n
\u201cStraight out of the blocks in FP2 McLaren was flying,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a real surprise just seeing the first lap of the McLarens in FP2, right at the top, and their race pace, especially on Lando\u2019s side, looked a bit better than us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the gap in single-lap pace between Mercedes and McLaren, Russell\u2019s commentary isn\u2019t all deflection.<\/p>\n
Marquez reigns after Bezzecchi drama | 17:52<\/p>\n
McLAREN IS CLOSER THAN IT LOOKS<\/p>\n
Oscar Piastri had a clean day of running through practice and was Mercedes\u2019s closest challenger in both sessions. The first laps on soft tyres in FP2 were particularly heartening, with Piastri shaking out just 0.042 seconds slower than Antonelli, but then the Italian completed a blistering second lap on used rubber to extend that margin to almost a quarter of a second.<\/p>\n
Most assumed the soft tyre will be a single-lap compound given the sizzling track temperatures.<\/p>\n
With Norris only 0.088 seconds further back, McLaren appeared to max out its performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for Kimi to do that kind of time on his second lap on the softs is quite impressive,\u201d Piastri said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re a step behind Mercedes, or at least Kimi, which we expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t invent anything overnight, but there\u2019s definitely going to be areas for both of us [Piastri and Norris] to learn from each other, so we\u2019ll just try to apply those bits and see where we end up.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the telemetry makes some interesting suggestions.<\/p>\n
Piastri seems to be losing all his time down the straights, where his Mercedes engine appears unable to compete with Antonelli\u2019s identical Mercedes engine.<\/p>\n
Antonelli is reliably 4 kilometres per hour quicker when he and Piastri max out down the first two long straights, and the disparity between energy management is apparent on every straight-line section of the track.<\/p>\n
While the engines are the same, teams can run their own energy maps. McLaren got one over Mercedes in the sprint in Miami, for example, by finding a more effective energy management regime to claim a comfortable one-two finish. Mercedes followed McLaren down that path to win the grand prix the next day.<\/p>\n
There would appear to be time to find purely through software this weekend.<\/p>\n
However, there are a couple of caveats.<\/p>\n
The first is that McLaren is a draggier car. We can see that when both cars run it runs out of electrical energy first and then decelerates faster, suggesting the aerodynamics are putting more strain on the engine.<\/p>\n
Downforce levels can be tweaked overnight to reduce drag, though that would obviously affect overall performance too.<\/p>\n
The second is both Mercedes drivers have brand-new engines, which will come with an inherent power advantage that can\u2019t be worked around.<\/p>\n
The signs are reasonable that McLaren is within striking distance at a track it\u2019s typically enjoyed.<\/p>\n
But there is a third potentially crucial caveat to all of this \u2014 especially for Norris.<\/p>\n
Bezzecchi loses his cool & gets banned | 00:17<\/p>\n
ONLY ONE McLAREN HAS THE MERCEDES RELIABILITY FIX<\/p>\n
At Mercedes, the gap between races was spent mostly concerned about engine unreliability, which has cost the works team considerable points, along with customer McLaren, so far this season.<\/p>\n
The team confirmed ahead of the weekend that it would be bringing what it hoped would be the solution to Austria: a new battery pack, the key component linking most the engine\u2019s various failures this season.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a timely update too. The Red Bull Ring is in the grips of the European heatwave, with forecast temperatures of 33\u00b0C expected at the alpine circuit on Sunday, which is resulting in track temperature in excess of a punishing 50\u00b0C.<\/p>\n
Exacerbated by the thinner air at altitude, heat and cooling have always been complications in Austria, and Mercedes believes heat might have played a role in its unreliability, even if not decisively.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s true that a component suddenly experienced a sharp temperature spike, which caused the battery to glitch, but in Canada the conditions were completely different, much cooler,\u201d he said, per Autosport.<\/p>\n
This weekend could be a key test of the new battery \u2014 but not every Mercedes-powered driver will get the new part.<\/p>\n
Both Mercedes drivers received the upgrade, but only Oscar Piastri at McLaren and both Alpine drivers.<\/p>\n
Lando Norris is missing out on the new part because he\u2019s already used his maximum of three batteries allowed for the season, which means taking a new one would have resulted in a grid drop.<\/p>\n
The reigning champion will likely take the hit later in the season at a track deemed more suitable for overtaking. Spa-Francorchamps, two rounds from now, has typically been a favourite for pre-planned engine penalties.<\/p>\n
Piastri had used only one battery before now; the new part is his second of three for the season.<\/p>\n
Neither Williams driver took the new battery on Friday contrary to expectations. Though Alex Albon is already maxed out, like Norris, Carlos Sainz has so far used only two of his three batteries.<\/p>\n
Sainz did take other hybrid-related parts along with Piastri and the Mercedes and Alpine drivers, though.<\/p>\n
With Norris, Albon and to a lesser extent Sainz essentially running old or mostly old power units, reliability is far from guaranteed.<\/p>\n
Allen claims Darwin win ahead of bday | 01:26<\/p>\n
WHERE\u2019S FERRARI?<\/p>\n
The story in the lead-up to Austria was that Ferrari was bringing its first engine upgrade of the year to try to shave down its power deficit to Mercedes. Given its chassis was good enough to win in Barcelona \u2014 where its excellent tyre usage also made the difference \u2014 hopes were high the Italian team would be at least competitive in Spielberg.<\/p>\n
But then Lewis Hamilton ended up 0.597 seconds off the pace. Charles Leclerc was an even less inspiring 0.841 seconds down.<\/p>\n
The gap? Almost all in engine performance.<\/p>\n
Hamilton was lacking 5 kilometres per hour on the run up to turn 3 and then a stunning 14 kilometres per hour down to turn 4. There\u2019s a 10-kilometre-per-hour difference into turn 9 too.<\/p>\n
The problem for Ferrari \u2014 and we\u2019ve seen it all season \u2014 is that it isn\u2019t as effective at recovering energy as Mercedes.<\/p>\n
This is exposed when there are two straights separated by a single corner \u2014 as is the case on either side of turn 3. The car dumps its battery down the first straight but can\u2019t recharge enough to be competitive down the second straight, where it loses heaps of time.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a query on the car\u2019s small turbocharger, which seems to be giving the car a little boost out of the corners but could be running out of puff at the end of the straights in the thinner atmosphere, exacerbating the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we have a fix though for the straight-line speed, and for that reason I think we\u2019ll struggle this weekend,\u201d Leclerc lamented.<\/p>\n
This sort of configuration wasn\u2019t in Spain, where the car was relatively more competitive.<\/p>\n
Then again, we haven\u2019t seen this sort of underperformance at many previous tracks. In Canada, for example, where the hairpin separates two longs straights, the Ferrari engine was far more competitive.<\/p>\n
It suggests there\u2019s almost certainly more to come on Saturday with some finetuning.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s especially the case given both drivers noted they didn\u2019t feel as comfortable as they\u2019d hoped through the corners, which Leclerc described as a \u201cnegative surprise\u201d given the team\u2019s usually competitive chassis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe struggled a little bit with the conditions, a bit extreme \u2014 the altitude, the temperature,\u201d Ferrari principal Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Vasseur said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same for everybody, but it\u2019s not fitting very well to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Certainly Ferrari optimism has taken a bit of a hit, but it would be surprising if this were the true competitive picture.<\/p>\n
Waters slammed over ‘DANGEROUS’ move | 02:14<\/p>\n
RED BULL UPGRADES MASK NEW-CAR OPTIMISM<\/p>\n
Red Bull Racing brought a massive upgrade to Austria \u2014 so large that team boss Laurent Mekies said its season would \u201cdepend a lot on how this package works\u201d.<\/p>\n
Max Verstappen was 0.55 seconds off the pace in fourth, while Isack Hadjar was 0.744 second adrift in seventh, both having suffered some disruptive teething problems throughout the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is what you expect when you change the car so much,\u201d technical director Pierre Wach\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n
The upgrade declaration is only ever indicative \u2014 not everything has to be declared \u2014 but Red Bull Racing named seven significant new parts, from the sidepod inlets, engine cover floor and floor boards to the rear suspension, rear wing and exhaust.<\/p>\n
Verstappen stopped in the middle of pit lane attempting to leave his garage in FP1, reporting the car constantly engaging anti-stall. It took the team 20 minutes to fix the car before sending it back out, after which the Dutchman complained the car was shaking under braking and offering him little feeling.<\/p>\n
Hadjar missed the first half-hour with a technical problem and reported back that the balance of the car was unpredictable.<\/p>\n
Things were a little smoother in FP2, though both drivers found they were struggling with engine mapping that was leaving them bogged down at turn 3, where a lack of grip send Hadjar off the track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried to understand the car, tried to understand the new package to see how it is,\u201d Wach\u00e9 said. \u201cWe modified some stuff on set-up for FP2 \u2014 maybe some were in the right direction, some not \u2014 then we tried to analyse that after FP2.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly we have some work to do. When you change the car a lot like that, there is a lot to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he was optimistic that, given Verstappen ended the day near the top of the order, Red Bull Racing could be in the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a full package, it looks [like it is] delivering what we expect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are quite happy with what we have.<\/p>\n
The potential is there, I think, and we have a good path to quali, I hope.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is this the resumption of regular service? Andrea Kimi Antonelli, winner of five of the seven grands prix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-763014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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