At the end of Friday’s qualifying session, the cars were locked into parc fermé conditions, restricting teams from making major setup changes ahead of the sprint race. This made it particularly challenging for teams to find the optimal setup on the opening day of the weekend.
Mercedes had planned to run Lewis Hamilton and George Russell with different setups during practice to gather valuable data for comparison. However, trouble with Hamilton’s car disrupted their plan. Chief Technical Officer Mike Elliott addressed this issue during Mercedes’ post-Baku debrief, acknowledging the impact of the new format on their ability to find the right setup.
