Why McLaren and Red Bull starred on Friday

Watching Friday's free practice sessions trackside only gives you a window into how Formula 1 cars are performing in one or two corners - in this case, we are judging it primarily around the Brooklands left-hander at the end of the Wellington straight and then into the long Luffield right-hander.

But it still gives you the chance to pick out the cars that are the most impressive.

That's not in terms of lap time or how fast the car can potentially go, but instead it's only about which cars maintain their balance even when the driver carries a bit more speed into the corner and how they respond. Brooklands is a corner where you brake into the apex and it then tightens up a bit so you need to apply more steering lock. It does show the car characteristics very well.

Top of my list was the Red Bull, which seemed the most consistent in that the drivers can come into the corner a bit too quick but just run a fraction wide and scrub the speed off - the car doesn't oversteer or understeer much. So despite the fact Max Verstappen complained about it not being a good day, the drivers should have confidence that even if they go in too quick the car isn't going to bite them.

Pierre Gasly was the quicker of the two Red Bull drivers today, and you can't really tell the difference between them without looking at the numbers on the car or the helmets. So I would say that Gasly has made progress, for today at least.

The second best car to me was the McLaren. Again, it wasn't second fastest, although Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr did lead the midfield, but it's clear the team has worked very hard to get to this level.

The new recruits, Andreas Seidl and James Key, will pay dividends in the long-term, but a lot of this progress will have been the existing group making it happen. We criticised McLaren a lot last year, and it didn't like it much, but the team absolutely deserves the compliments this year because what it has created is a very drivable car. It's also made improvements since testing, when it looked a bit unstable, so all credit to everyone involved in making it into a very drivable car.

Then we come to Ferrari. Charles Leclerc is young and hungry and you can see he's attacking more than Vettel, who seems to be more in a cruise mode until he really has to push. As far as the car is concerned, if the drivers come in a little bit too quick it goes into understeer. The rear is pretty secure so usually they just run a bit wide, but the Red Bull and the McLaren don't do that anywhere near as much.

Mercedes' car looks as if it takes a bit of driving and if Lewis Hamilton or Valtteri Bottas come into the corner too fast, they run wide, put more steering lock on and get snappy oversteer. In general, it's the rear that's giving up, but carry too much speed in and it's the front that gives up.

One thing that struck me in FP2 was just how different the cars look comparing quick laps to the race runs. The cars become so much more mundane to watch - it's a bit like it suddenly becomes a different formula

The rear looked nervous, but I think that comes from the front end. A few weeks ago, I wrote about aerodynamic sensitivity to steering, which is a very big thing on these cars. I think Mercedes is probably using it so it can put the lock on and move the centre of pressure forward, creating more front grip - so if the drivers apply even more lock, it moves further forward.

Hamilton looked like he was overdriving the car. There is a limit the drivers can work on and Bottas seemed to be right on that limit where you see a little movement but not too much. Hamilton was going a step further and that was causing problems that weren't a result of the car's underlying characteristics, but because he was overdriving.

But he will tidy it up. It's like Marc Marquez in MotoGP, who starts off the weekend overdoing it then backs off a bit to find the limit. If you build up to qualifying and haven't explored those limits you don't know what's going to happen, but if you push then drop back you have the experience. So I'm sure he'll be on it come qualifying, as he usually is.

Even so, I was surprised because every time Hamilton tried for a lap time it seemed to take a few attempts before he got it right through Brooklands. It's tough to understand as you'd expect him to try and put in a lap and then build on that one.

Of the rest, Toro Rosso was probably the best. Alex Albon is doing a good job against a more experienced team-mate and was again impressive. But when you get to this part of the field, it is largely down to degrees of grip. Everyone still has some little balance problems and may not have the grip to tighten up the corner if they carry in too much speed, but it's not big differences.

"It's hard to know whether that form will translate to Sunday. A small change in temperature and the tyres won't behave in this fashion and the asphalt is also brand new, so it will change too as the weekend goes on" Mercedes technical director James Allison

The Renault is perhaps the exception as it looks like it's on a bit of a knife edge - like the Mercedes but slower.

But the top four are very interesting in terms of comparing how the cars react on the limit - or over it. The Red Bull was the best all-round chassis on that part of the track, although that is only one snapshot.

One other thing struck me in general in FP2, which was just how different the cars look comparing their quick laps to the race runs later on. The cars become so much more mundane to watch and you get that extreme contrast, so it's a bit like it suddenly becomes a different formula.

You want to see these cars being muscled into submission and driven quickly. But on higher fuel it's like someone has just turned down the dimmer switch.

Friday pace analysis

By Edd Straw

While Gary Anderson's trackside impressions from Brooklands give a great indication of the performance of the cars through that snapshot of part of the lap, there's also a wider competitive picture encapsulated in the lap times.

Single-lap pace

1 Mercedes (Bottas), 1m26.732s
2 Ferrari (Leclerc), 1m26.929s
3 Red Bull (Gasly), 1m27.249s
4 McLaren (Norris), 1m27.546s
5 Toro Rosso (Albon), 1m27.997s
6 Racing Point (Perez), 1m28.002s
7 Haas (Magnussen), 1m28.059s
8 Alfa Romeo (Raikkonen), 1m28.126s
9 Renault (Ricciardo) 1m28.128s
10 Williams (Kubica) 1m29.935s

Overall, Mercedes was fastest with Valtteri Bottas ahead of Ferrari's pace courtesy of Charles Leclerc. As expected, both this and the long-run pace indicated Mercedes has the advantage heading into Saturday.

"Lewis struggled with it a little bit more than Valtteri, but in the end both drivers managed to put in good lap times on the single-lap run on a softer tyre," said technical director James Allison.

"They both looked competitive today on the race simulations we did, but it's hard to know whether that form will translate over to Sunday. A small change in temperature and the tyres won't behave in this fashion and the asphalt is also brand new, so it will change too as the weekend goes on. But it's a promising start nevertheless."

Both Red Bull's and Ferrari's drivers admitted they had problems on Friday. For both teams, this showed up particularly on long-run pace, where they lagged well behind Mercedes.

Ferrari struggled in particularly with the front tyres, while Verstappen complained of a general lack of grip in his Red Bull.

McLaren, meanwhile, performed well on single-lap pace and also looked good on race pace. However, to this we must add the caveat that the pace below is based on Norris at the end of the session, when he was likely running less fuel than the others in the comparison. But either way, it suggests the team will have decent race pace.

Long-run pace (softs)

1 Mercedes (Hamilton), 1m31.823s
2 McLaren (Norris), 1m32.154s
3 Red Bull (Verstappen), 1m32.392s
4 Ferrari (Vettel), 1m32.708s
5 Haas (Magnussen), 1m32.910s
6 Toro Rosso (Albon) 1m33.041s
7 Racing Point (Perez), 1m33.122s
8 Renault (Hulkenberg), 1m33.228s
9 Alfa Romeo (Giovinazzi), 1m33.813s
10 Williams (Kubica), 1m36.124s

All indications are that this will be a Mercedes weekend, although as Allison warned changes in temperature could transform the way the tyres work. Red Bull and Ferrari, which fought for victory last time out in Austria, have their work cut out to get back in the game tomorrow.