Mugello’s victory “wouldn’t mean much to me”

(Motorsport-Total.com) – Mercedes drivers Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton have determined the start of the Formula 1 training session at the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello (watch it here on the live ticker!). And they respond with enthusiasm to the layout of the second Italian circuit on the current Formula 1 calendar.

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Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton at Mugello: his team is favorites again Focus

For Hamilton it was a “great experience” to drive at Mugello for the first time. He praises: “It’s a fast track, definitely a challenge. The double right feels like [die langgezogene Linkskurve] in Turkey, incredibly fast. It’s hard to pay attention to the tires. “

Bottas had fun on the track too, as he puts it: “There are some places where there’s definitely not a lot of room for mistakes, but that’s the way it should be. That makes it even more exciting. If you make a mistake, then you should be punished for it too. . I like routes like this. “

Bottas with the two best times on Friday

And Bottas got along well at Mugello from the beginning: in the first practice session he set the pace with 1: 17.879 minutes, in the second session he increased to 1: 16.989 minutes, the best time in each case. In the end, Hamilton was two tenths of a second behind his teammate at Mercedes.

But he also had to adjust to the course first, says Hamilton. He explains: “If you don’t drive well enough, you don’t need to change anything in the car. First you have to push the limit, then you can tune the car. And there are some areas where we have to change something.”

So far he is only “quite satisfied” with his last sector, says the world leader. “Sectors one and two are still a bit weak for me, especially the first one. So there is still a lot there.”

Mugello: A driver’s track?

Bottas, for his part, feels “really good” after the first day and only has to complain about “a little understeer” in the morning. But he also says, “There’s still a lot of time back there.”

“It’s like always on a track where you’ve never driven a Formula 1 car: as a driver, you can progress a lot from one day to the next. Of course, this also comes from the car, but more from the car.” Driver.”

And Mugello is a classic racetrack with an old-school character that demands everything from a driver. “The whole section with fast chicanes, the second sector, really wonderful. I enjoyed every lap today,” says Bottas.

Mercedes continues to work on the ideal set-up

Hamilton agrees, saying: “This is a real track, not child’s play, just medium-fast and fast passages. You don’t drive below fourth gear and there aren’t too many exit zones.”

Mugello is a route that does not make it easy for those involved, especially not on the first visit, as Mercedes sporting director Toto Wolff points out: “You could clearly see that everyone had learned the route in the first session. themselves.” That is why the configuration question at Mercedes has not yet been finally answered.

However, overall, the team did a good preparatory job, explains Andrew Shovlin, one of Mercedes’ lead engineers. “We seem to be a bit slower on the straights compared to some of the others, but our pace looks right and the tire degradation looks competitive as well.” It was a “decent start”.

Verstappen is the only competitor of Mercedes

Indeed, Mercedes currently only needs to fear Red Bull driver Max Verstappen. He was 0.246 seconds off Bottas’ best time. Verstappen’s teammate Alexander Albon in P4 was 0.982 seconds off Mercedes’ stick.

So does it mean another Mercedes victory in the 2020 Formula 1 season? Hamilton said Thursday: “It wouldn’t mean much to me. It would be another race.”

“I have already forgotten some races because there have been many. Hopefully I remember my time here. I have never been to Tuscany.”

Hamilton only fears the tires

And now that he’s driving Mugello for the first time, Hamilton is especially concerned about the tires: “At the speeds we have here, I pray they hold up.” Overall, however, the Pirelli tires in Friday’s practice were “good” to “even good”.

“I have no idea what that might mean for strategy. I expect, as always, more than one stop because one stop is always pretty boring,” says Hamilton.