Friday 4th June 2021
Trouble about Flexi wings continues
Hamilton only spectators at Perez Show
The training for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix brings little surprise to light: World champion Hamilton and ex-world champion Vettel are sometimes clearly behind, while Red Bull dominates. Some teams are already focusing on the possible race result on Sunday. That could be tilted.
Sebastian Vettel made several wrong turns in the streets of Baku and experienced a relapse into bad times, Lewis Hamilton desperate over his slow Mercedes – Max Verstappen and Red Bull, on the other hand, practically flew over the street circuit on the Caspian Sea: The start of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was to the show of the new World Cup front runners, the debate about their flexi wings should now be even hotter. For pursuers Hamilton, on the other hand, there were signs of another debacle, at least on Friday.
At the end of the day Sergio Perez was right in front, Verstappen’s team-mate set the fastest lap of the day in 1: 42.115 minutes. The Dutchman was only a tenth behind, who had taken the top spot in the World Cup with his victory in Monaco two weeks ago. And the record world champion was only to be found much further down the list of results: Hamilton finished eleventh, after seventh in Monaco, the next major setback is looming.
Hamilton is frustrated
“I won’t get any faster,” he radioed to the pits during the second session in the afternoon, “I don’t know where all this time has gone.” However, it was obviously not a personal problem, his team-mate Valtteri Bottas even only put the Mercedes in 16th place.
The vice world champion landed behind Sebastian Vettel, but this was no consolation for the Heppenheimer. In Monaco, he had picked up his first championship points for Aston Martin in fifth and was hoping for an upward trend – on Friday everything was as before. 15th place directly behind his teammate Lance Stroll, plus a good 1.7 seconds behind first place. Vettel also braked himself several times and turned into side streets that had been converted into a run-off zone.
Ferrari is experiencing a remarkable boom
His ex-team is doing much better at the moment. Ferrari, already with a remarkable upswing in Monte Carlo, took third and fourth place with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. Mick Schumacher was at the bottom of the field in the losing Haas, as is usually the case, this time he also landed behind his teammate Nikita Masepin.
Flexible rear wings had been discussed in Formula 1 for days, and Friday poured new oil into this fire: In addition to Red Bull, Ferrari also uses this principle and was also noticeably strong.
Ambiguity in the set of rules?
From the point of view of the competition, both teams are breaking the rules because moving aerodynamic parts are not allowed. In another article of the rule book, however, it is stated how flexible the individual components can be, and the Flexi wings had passed this test.
The principle: the wing bends backwards on the straight at high speed, is therefore flatter and enables a higher speed. In the slower corners, it returns to its original shape and provides the necessary contact pressure. The world federation FIA has already decided to intensify the tests from next week, but from the point of view of the competition for Mercedes and McLaren that comes too late.
“Why do you let teams that have benefited from it for a few races again with these parts,” said the German McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl. It is possible that some teams will protest against the results in Baku over the course of the weekend.
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