That Mercedes was going to be ahead at the start of the Formula 1 World Championship was a feeling that began to permeate the paddock of the championship long before the cars designed based on the parameters of the new regulations set foot on the track for the first time. The first three grands prix of the season have given an approximate measure of the size of that advantage, although it is not easy to know if the star brand’s car has already shown its full potential, or if it runs at half throttle and reserves more fuel for later in case the competition starts to tighten. Aside from the brawl of the first laps, enhanced by the nature of the new regulations, the premiere in Melbourne. For different reasons, the third round, in Suzuka, did not help much to limit the magnitude of that superiority. Due to the clumsiness of Kimi Antonelli, who got stuck at the start and with his tires burning rubber – he passed from the pole to sixth position. And because of the bad luck of George Russell, his teammate, whom the appearance of the safety car on lap 22, due to Oliver Bearman’s accident, plunged into misery when he had everything in his sights to win the race. That same safety He multiplied Antonelli’s options, who gained 12 seconds and two places in the tire change. A key maneuver that gave the Italian his second victory in the World Cup, and made him the youngest leader in history.
—in Australia he crashed on the formation lap and a breakdown prevented him from starting in China— and he finished second, while Charles Leclerc closed the podium after a heroic defense against Russell, who climbed the walls to overtake the Monegasque but was left wanting to pop the champagne. Carlos Sainz crossed the finish line in 15th place and Fernando Alonso crossed the finish line in 18th place after being overtaken by the first riders.
By placing the focus on the element that most influences generating power, the gaze is directed directly towards the power unit, the central component of the regulations that has entered the scene and has revolutionized the chicken coop, not necessarily for the better. The W17 engine makes the difference, either when measured against cars that use other engines or if there is a rival from a customer team in front of it. However, this evidence can somewhat mask the true key to the success of the Brackley (Great Britain) team, which is the whole. Something that the rest of the structures also powered by Mercedes are very clear about. Starting with McLaren, which last year won the double crown (drivers and manufacturers), and has not yet found a way to squeeze the full potential of this year’s MCL40. “In Australia, half of the gap that separated us from Mercedes came from how we squeezed the power unit, and the other half from grip in the corners. In China we understood a little more how to take advantage of the engine, but when cornering we were still far away,” Andrea Stella, McLaren director, recently declared.
Suzuka is no longer Suzuka
To naturalize the qualifying in Suzuka a little will require more drastic measures if the promoters do not want the riders to ruin the situation with their harmful comments. On a route that historically made the blood run cold, the images from the on-board cameras of the fast laps ignited social networks, in which a large critical mass cried out. The new regulations have turned very delicate curves like the famous 130R into sections without any difficulty, beyond identifying the areas where it is convenient to accumulate energy. This offers very strange maneuvers, incredible overtaking in areas that were previously prohibited. “There is no fun. What fun is there going to be if you accidentally overtake? The overtaking that there is occurs because you come across a car that has a much more charged battery than the one in front. Either you pass it, or you crash into it,” Alonso ironically stated.
