Short practice time could mean trouble for Red Bull: "There's no time to react"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
After Mexico, the Brazilian Grand Prix is another race where Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen are the favourites. However, there is one major disadvantage compared to previous years: there is only one hour of practice time before the teams have to get everything ready for qualifying. Paul di Resta thinks this might be an opportunity for Mercedes.
"We all thought the championship might change based on Mercedes locking out the front row of the grid in Mexico," Di Resta began on Sky Sports. "It was their most dominant qualifying at a track where we knew Red Bull Racing would be dominant."
Di Resta sees where Mercedes can benefit
"Just surprising the difference they made on Sunday v Saturday," he continues. "This [Interlagos] should be a track that will probably play into Red Bull's hands if they get it right. There's no time to react here though, you're into an hour session, straight into qualifying later on and that dictates the weekend because you're straight into parc ferme."
According to Di Resta, Mercedes' system, which allows the ride height to be adjusted at the rear of the car, could play an important role for the team. "All the way from turn 12 to turn 1, it's a long straight and you can make a big difference from that. Getting that in the range for the middle sector is quite hard with limited track time," Di Resta said.