(Motorsport-Total.com) – This is not how the Formula 1 drivers had imagined their return to Istanbul. They wanted to enjoy the challenge of the fast Turn 8 , but instead drove around the course for three hours on Friday like on raw eggs. “That was a disaster today,” says Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton and becomes even clearer: “Shit – and shit with a capital S!”
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The Istanbul Park was paved again before the Formula 1 race – like Portimao. In order to get the oily bitumen out of the asphalt, the track was even washed again before the coaching – a circumstance that should not have helped the coaching today either ( Formula 1 2020 live in the ticker ).
With Hamilton this is met with incomprehension: “This is such a fantastic track, and I really don’t understand why they are spending millions on it to recondition the asphalt. I know that it has been there for a long time, but maybe they should have just cleaned it instead of wasting all the money, “says the Mercedes driver, who even describes it as” worse than Portimao “.
In Istanbul, several factors come together . In addition to the oily slope, there are also the low temperatures on the route at the 20 – degree mark scratched, and the toughest Pirelli tires possible. Getting them to work on the slippery asphalt was swiftly an impossibility for the pilots. “The hard tire is useless,” says Hamilton annoyed.
For him Friday in Turkey was “scary the whole round” and like being on an ice rink. “It’s not as much fun as it is usually in Istanbul – and I don’t see that change.”
Proof of the difficult conditions: Max Verstappen’s best time was in the range of 1: 28 minutes. Actually one had expected that one would press the times of 620 by around four seconds – at that time the pole-put at 1 : 25. 0 minutes.
Hamilton had problems with The result is that he has not changed “a single thing” on his car today. “Because if the tires don’t work, you don’t really know what the balance problem is – it’s just the tires,” says the Briton.
But he has observed that others have Have the tires working. “And then you win a second from one lap to the next because the tires worked in a few corners. Red Bull seems to handle it well, and we definitely have work to do before the usa to find out what once we can change.”
Team-mate Valtteri Bottas, on the other hand, had a little more fun on the track and was able to contribute his experience with the rally car. “I had fun playing around a bit,” he says, “but it was a long way from normal driving standards in Formula 1,” said the Finn. “It was really extreme.”
He also considers the softest tire to be the most useful, even if there was some graining up front. “But it offered the best grip.” Now you have to evaluate what you have learned for the rest of the weekend, even if it is difficult. “It is tricky to make the right decisions about the strategy because there are so many question marks.”
And who knows: maybe there will even be rain, which makes things even more difficult . “Hopefully,” says Hamilton. “Even if we still had the same problems with the tires. We would have ice-cold rain tires all the time. But it would be exciting.”
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