Unbalanced duel
Mercedes is ready to fly to Barcelona, where it will try to extend its extraordinary streak of six consecutive victories achieved at the start of the season. However, the mood of the two Silver Arrows drivers is opposite: the enthusiasm of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the absolute master of the World Championship at the moment, is contrasted by the sporting depression of George Russell, who incredibly comes from two GPs concluded without points.
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“Kimi will naturally gain confidence from Monaco – explained Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, presenting the Catalan weekend – but the goal must be to continue working and doing his duty in Barcelona. For George, the last races haven’t gone as he hoped, but that’s part of racing. He is very strong mentally, we know what level he can reach and he has the right people around him. The goal is simple: reset, focus on the weekend ahead and put together the performances we know he is capable of“.
Vesti to start in FP1
In Barcelona, Antonelli will start with a small ‘handicap’: he will not be able to take to the track in FP1. Mercedes has in fact decided to let third driver Frederik Vesti drive in the first Friday session, replacing the championship leader: “Fred will drive Kimi’s car in FP1 – confirmed Wolff – he has played an important role in our W17 development work and has helped us understand how to get the most out of this package. This session represents an excellent opportunity for him to connect the simulator work with the real car and for us to collect other useful data to continue improving“.
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“Barcelona is a more traditional and therefore representative circuit – concluded the Mercedes boss – it is a real test bench for the car. It has a long straight and a mix of high, medium, and low-speed corners, so after two Sprint weekends and Monaco, we should have a clearer picture of our performance. It will be the first weekend where we can more deeply understand the recent updates and our position compared to the rest of the field. We need to see how the car performs, if the performance is there and if we can extract it. Until then, we must be careful not to draw too many conclusions from the last races“.
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