Will the Spanish Grand Prix race weekend in Barcelona mark the beginning of Mercedes’ return to the top of Formula 1? After the two Friday practice sessions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya there are at least several signs of this.
On the one hand, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished the afternoon session (FT2) just 0.117 and 0.204 seconds behind the fastest of the day, Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), respectively, in P2 and P3. On the other hand, both Mercedes drivers said they were in a good mood after the practice session.
“I’m in good spirits and very satisfied with the progress,” said a beaming Lewis Hamilton. Having often been downright depressed following sessions at previous Grands Prix of the 2022 season, the seven-time World Champion sent “a big, big, big thank you to everyone at the factory on Friday night in Barcelona because they didn’t give up and they have pushed further”.
Thanks to updates to the F1 W13, no bouncing on the straights for the first time
The Mercedes F1 W13 has again received technical upgrades for the Spanish weekend, above all a newly designed underbody. The result: The tiresome bouncing – also known as porpoising – has now become significantly less.
“We’re not the fastest yet, but we’re on the right track,” says Hamilton, happily: “Today was the first time that we didn’t bounce on the straight. We still have some bouncing, but it is gotten a lot better.”
Team-mate Russell, who was a tad faster than Hamilton in both FT1 and FT2 on Friday, agrees: “The car definitely reacts differently. That means we’re dealing with completely different limits here. You have that on the straights No more porpoising. That’s a good thing. In the corners we still have a bit of that here and there, but that should be sorted out.”
But sorting this out will probably take some time. “We will certainly have a solution in the pipeline, but probably nothing that we can use immediately this weekend,” suspects Russell and expects “compromises that we have to make when voting, depending on whether it’s about the qualifying or the race”.
Toto Wolff with caution: “Were pretty strong in Miami on Friday”
Hamilton, who was in a good mood on Friday, even goes so far as to say that Mercedes “hopefully can improve a bit on Saturday and hopefully we can stay on the heels of the guys in front of us”.
However: According to Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, whether you can seriously fight against Ferrari and Red Bull in qualifying is another matter.
“We were also pretty strong in Miami on Friday,” Wolff reminds “Sky” and fears: “If the level of grip builds up, then we might return to our old weakness, namely that bouncing simply returns. We have that too had here again.”
After the “solid Friday”, Wolff is a bit more optimistic for the race on Sunday. “Verstappen was the one with the best long run. Then I would say our two have already come,” said the Mercedes team boss; who hopes that the level of grip on the Spanish Grand Prix track will not increase too much.