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Lewis Hamilton remained “a little sick” after his Mercedes struggled to jump straight in Friday’s practice at the Azerbaijani Grand Prix.
“I’ll handle it,” he said after the 12th day was over. “We’re reaching serious speeds at the end of the line and she’s jumping a lot.”
His teammate George Russell said the new rules needed to be rethought.
“I don’t think it’s right to work this way for the next four years or whatever,” Russell said.
“Talks will be needed because everyone is in the same boat.”
The straight jump – caused by an interruption in the airflow from the bottom of the car – has affected some teams to some extent this year after the introduction of new rules aimed at closing the field and making it easier to overtake.
They changed the way car aerodynamics work and led to the jumping problem that Mercedes struggles with more than most.
The world champions had hoped to make some changes to the Spanish Grand Prix two races before, but he returned to Baku’s long boxing straight this weekend, which includes a series of distortions removed.
Russell, director of the Grand Prix Pilots’ Association, said: “Now the car is going so close to the ground that it’s crazy to go through these high-speed corners.
“The car is completely at the bottom and I think it’s the same for everyone and it’s really not comfortable to drive. I don’t know what the future holds for this era of cars, but I don’t see that we can [continue like this]”
Both Ferraris also seem to be struggling to jump straight.
No other driver has complained as much as the Mercedes couple, although Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz has admitted that he is also struggling with the problem, also known as “pretense”.
Sainz said: “This is definitely something I’m looking at, because for some reason I struggled a lot today with this phenomenon, which hasn’t been there in the last few races and looked particularly bad on my part in the garage.
“It’s something I need to dig into with the engineers. Get some confidence in the straight and the brakes.”
F1 Managing Director Ross Brown – who was behind the introduction of the new rules, which changed the way car aerodynamics work this year to close the field and make it easier to overtake – had previously dismissed Russell’s comments, saying really only interested in the thoughts of the drivers in front of the field.
Following changes in the structure of F1, the team led by Brown, which developed the rules, was transferred and now works for the governing body of the FIA.
Russell was the fastest driver in Mercedes, in seventh place and 1.3 seconds behind pacemaker Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, with Hamilton 0.3 seconds behind.
Hamilton said: “We tried something experimental with my car and it didn’t feel so great, to be honest. But at least we tried it and got data on it. We will review it and hope that tomorrow we will probably return to what we have changed.
“1.6 seconds or 1.3 seconds or whatever; that’s a long way off. Much of it is right.”
Lewis Hamilton seems to be struggling in his Mercedes
Ferrari and Red Bull close again
Leclerc finished the day 0.248 seconds faster than Red Bull’s Monaco Grand Prix winner Sergio Perez, and the Ferrari driver said he had a “good Friday”.
Leclerc’s title contender Max Verstappen was 0.108 seconds behind. Fernando Alonso – whose Alpine features a major aerodynamic upgrade this weekend – was fourth fastest, ahead of Carlos Sainz’s second Ferrari.
Leclerc said the nature of the sessions meant that understanding the true picture of the performance was difficult.
“I think it will be [a hard fight at the top]”Leclerc said.” We have improved a lot from P1 to P2, but there is one more step we have to take tomorrow.
“I also feel like no one has really put a lap in P2 – neither have we, but Max and Carlos haven’t actually improved the soft ones, so there are still a lot of questions.
“The positives that need to be taken from today are that the degradation was good and the pace of the race was very strong, so that’s good.”
Leclerc has a 46-point lead over Verstappen after three races this season turned into a nine-point deficit after four consecutive Red Bull wins and a series of problems for Ferrari.
But he said he believes he will be able to regain the lead as the season progresses.
“If we do everything perfectly, I’m sure we can do it [the lead] back at one point, “Leclerc said.
In terms of racing pace, Ferrari and Red Bull looked very similar in Baku.
Red Bull seemed to be the team to win in the first session, in which Perez was the fastest and when he and Verstappen were obviously faster in the straight – a key factor on the track, where they are so long and overtaking is relatively easy.
But Ferrari’s deficit on the straight decreased in the second session and Leclerc moved to his usual position this season as determining the pace in one lap.
Verstappen came out on the track late in the second session when Red Bull repaired his rear wing after it was hesitant when the DRS overtaking aid was opened during the first session.
His qualifying simulation runs were later interrupted by traffic. And he managed to complete only two laps in racing training at the end of the session.
However, Perez seemed to be the more comfortable Red Bull driver during the day, as Verstappen complained of understeer in the first session and then seemed to be struggling with a loose back at the beginning of the second.
As such, Perez seems ready to continue his strong form after his victory in Monaco last time-out.
Perez said: “It was a good start to the day, P2 did not go as well as we would like. I think we have probably taken the wrong direction or just researched and are not able to notice our problems.
“But we have data on both tires in the long run. Let’s hope we can get everything together for qualifying. I feel confident there.”
After Sainz, Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasley was sixth faster than Russell, and Frenchman Yuki Tsunoda’s teammate was eighth, second to Esteban Oko.n and Lando Norris of McLaren.
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