Formula One Vault

Prixview – Azerbajian Grand Prix 2023

PRIXVIEW – Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2023

Round four of the 2023 season brings F1 to western Asia and the streets of the Azerbaijani capital Baku. Since joining the calendar in 2016 the streets of Baku have provided drama and controversy as drivers tackle the third-longest circuit on the calendar which features the narrowest section of the season, but also great overtaking opportunities.

Baku was the first of a new generation of street circuits, then the fastest on the calendar, thanks to its long straights and the flat-out blast between Turn Nineteen and One along Neftchilar Avenue. The within of much of the circuit is about the same as permeant circuits which increases the opportunities to overtake.

Drivers enjoy the challenge offered by its mixture of long straights, slow technical sections and no margin for error due to the proximity of the walls. It’s a race where drivers are likely to need to keep their eyes peeled so not to make mistakes though there are more opportunities to overtake than in Monaco

Overtaking is possible in the new town, but in the old town, many of the streets are traditional of street circuits. But as ever that comes with the risk of crashing into the barriers, the nature of the circuit punishes cars and lockups are common forcing drivers to use escape roads where possible to avoid crashing out of qualifying the sp

Baku requires high speed and downforce, but there is a high chance of safety cars and accidents with drama throughout the last eight races, these factors have raised questions about why it has been chosen as a sprint weekend. Since sprints were introduced we are yet to see one at a street circuit, but I believe this is a perfect place to test whether they can work on a street circuit.

The 2016 GP2 support race saw twelve of the twenty-two cars retire. This means the teams need to be careful not to overheat the cars, make mistakes or crash, that also means there can be big rewards if teams pull of good strategy.

This weekend is very different to Melbourne given its greater speeds and higher chances of drivers crashing into the barriers. It means that any mistakes can be punished but the rewards are high, this is a very different circuit to Monte Carlo, designed like Jeddah and Miami to encourage overtaking, and that comes with its own risks and rewards.

These factors place high demands on a driver’s focus given the high provably of accidents and that means reacting as well as getting the strategy right. As well as reacting to events in a race which has a history of being chaotic and unpredictable, following Melbourne you have to expect a close midfield which you imagine will be tight again.

Teams need to work out a balance between high speed and downforce, this makes the circuit one of the faster street circuits and the third fastest after Jeddah and Monza. The final sector runs along the coastline making it a challenge between choosing between drag and straight-line speed.

Following the form guide from the opening three races Red Bull looks to be the team to beat, but given we have had a four-week break without any shutdown there could have been big steps forwards. The big question is likely to be whether Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin have been able to make a jump towards Red Bull to close the gap which looked to be huge following the break, although they could wait until Imola.

Ferrari and Mercedes will be hoping that the break in April has allowed them to make progress towards Red Bull given the advantage they had in the opening three races. Although teams could either spilt the upgrades between this weekend and Imola, though the gap should have closed but that’s the big question.

Drama is often never far away and even with the previous regulations, the 2017 race is defined by two incidents. While heading for the first restart Sebastian Vettel ran into the back to race leader Hamilton, accusing the Mercedes of brake testing him, while a collision between the Force India’s of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon brought out the red flag.

That drama for Vettel and Hamilton earned the Ferrari a ten-second stop-and-go putting Daniel Ricciardo into the lead. The Red Bull driver comfortable lead by twelve seconds, but was being caught by the Mercedes and Lance Stroll, ultimately they failed with the Bottas only managing second.

Hamilton took Mercedes second win in 2018 after his teammate Valtteri Bottas suffered a tyre failure when he was leading by a second with three laps to go. Hamilton in the closing stages, took the lead and victory from Kimi Raikkonen. Mercedes took their third win in Baku and fourth in a row in 2019, Bottas holding off Hamilton after Ferrari’s pace disappeared in the race. Although Leclerc did recover to fifth following his crash in qualifying.

Following a years hiatus in 2021, Leclerc took back-to-back poles in Baku, despite struggling in practice Mercedes turned it around after set up changes in practice for Hamilton to take pole. While Verstappen went off into the wall in the closing stages bringing out the red flag with five laps remaining, on the restart there was dramas for Hamilton.

Starting from pole for the restart with three laps to Perez took the lead from Hamilton, who had selected the wrong setting on his wheel. This resulted in another surprise result as Vettel took the podium for Aston Martin. Last year’s race saw Verstappen take victory ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez after Leclerc retired early on with a power unit issue.

Race & Circuit Guide

*including the 2016 European Grand Prix

Fast facts

• No driver has ever won in Baku twice so far, although the race was won three times twice by Mercedes (2016, 2018 and 2019) and Red Bull Racing (2017, 2021 and 2022).
• Lance Stroll was the second youngest driver ever to score a podium when he finished third in the 2017 race. Aged 18 years 239 days, he was only 11 days older than Max Verstappen was when he won the 2016 Spanish GP.
• Sixth and eighth on the grid have supplied as many podium finishes as the pole slot has. Both Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez took third place finishes after starting from eighth in 2017 and 2018 respectively, while Perez won from sixth in 2021 and Kimi Raikkonen finished second having started sixth in 2018.
• At the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso set a new record for the longest F1 career. Race day in Baku marked 21 years, 3 months and 8 days since his debut at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix, eclipsing Michael Schumacher’s former longevity record.

Event timetable

The format

• Friday’s qualifying session set the grid for Sunday’s race, while Saturday will now feature a standalone double of the Sprint Shootout to dictate the order for the shortened 100km race that follows.
• Sprint shoot out will feature three sessions of eight minutes in the standard Q1, Q2, Q3 knock out but the tyres will be mandated by Pirelli Mediums for Q1 and Q2 and softs for Q3
• There is no change to the awarding of points from 2022. The Sprint winner will score eight points, with that amount descending by a point for each of the top eight.

What happened in 2022?

Charles Leclerc took his sixth pole of the season after beating Sergio Perez to pole by a quarter of a second. However, Red Bull’s qualifying appeared to be hampered by a delay in refuelling Verstappen for the final run and the Mexican suffering a power unit issue, meaning he couldn’t benefit from a tow. On his final run, Perez also brushed the wall on the exit of Lewis’s Corner having oversteered through the corner.

Meanwhile, Leclerc looked fast on track as his teammate Sainz tried to challenge for a maiden pole he lost time between Zarifa Aliyeva Street and the left junction with Neftchilar Avenue. Leclerc then went fastest and while Perez attempted to challenge, he couldn’t go outright fastest in the first two sectors

Max Verstappen went onto to win the race after overtaking Leclerc on lap twenty, when the Ferrari driver retired after twenty laps because of an engine failure. It was a bad race for the Scuderia as Carlos Sainz also retired with a BBW failure on lap nine. Following the retirements of both Ferrari’s

George Russell brought his Mercedes home third finishing forty-five seconds behind race winner Verstappen and ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes cars still continued to manage the porpoising issue and the seven-time champion complained of back pain.

Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly continued his strong weekend finishing fifth, and at one stage holding onto fourth before being instructed not to put up a fight against Hamilton in the closing stages as he edged nearer before passing him on lap forty-four.

Mercedes meanwhile had stopped both cars under the first VSC and Hamilton was the main loser as it dropped him out the points. The seven-time champion then inherited a place from Sebastian Vettel when the Aston Martin ran wide trying to pass Esteban Ocon.

Race Result – 1) M. Verstappen, Red Bull – RBPT Honda, 01:34:05.941 | 2) S. Perez, Red Bull – RBTPT Honda, +20.823 | 3) G. Russell, Mercedes, +45.995

What to watch for?

Following the four-week hiatus due to the cancellation of Shanghai and a chance to head back to Europe following the Middle East/Australian leg will have allowed the teams for upgrades and teams to understand what they have learned from the opening three races. The big question following the domination of Red Bull is whether Ferrari, Aston Martin and Mercedes have managed to close the championship.

Mercedes looks to be in a better place than they were last year, but they still appear to be a bit behind Red Bull but close to Ferrari. They I think had a few problems in understanding the car but it hasn’t been as bad as they feared following testing or as last year. Following Bahrain, they looked to be on the right course but can they make that big jump which they need to challenge Red Bull.

There has been no repeat driver winner, but Red Bull have won the last two races in Baku and their strength this season suggests they are the favourites. Looking at their performances in the opening three races they look to have a huge advantage, which you need to expect will still be an advantage to them.

This is a sprint weekend meaning teams will need to approach this weekend differently, but having had six sprints this season it means an opportunity to perfect their approaches. FP1 teams only have an hour before qualifying and parc ferme at the start of Q1 with very few adjustments being able to be made once in parc ferme.

Teams traditionally use a Monza-style set-up for this weekend given its similarity in terms of speed its in the top three because of its long straights and fast corners. It is one of the best street circuits for overtaking and closer racing we have seen plenty of dramatic races in Baku and that I think given the midfield chaos we have had in the opening three races.

The long main straight along the Baku shoreline is a slipstreaming mecca, and with cars able to run three abreast into Turn 1, the action often looks more IndyCar than F1. But also the ninety-degree corner at the first corner on the start and any restart can cause the cars to bunch up again leading to more accidents especially if we run towards the later part of the evening.

Alpha Tauri’s drivers have expressed concerns about the lack of straight-line speed going into this weekend following the difficulties they had in Melbourne. Straight-line speed is very important given the flat-out sections we have in Baku, this can often lead to high tyre wear and we have seen in the past tyre failures and mistakes creates chaos.

We know that behind the essentially top four teams there remains this very competitive midfield. I think this is an important weekend over the next three months we have nine races an equal number to what we have following the summer break, we know that in the second half of the season normally you see one team serge ahead, while it may be too early to say what teams have closed up.

I think McLaren have a learnt a lot from the opening races and cored a huge chunk of points in Melbourne to leap to fifth, however from fifth to tenth is covered only by twelve points and we know from previous seasons, as well as comments by the team about needing to find itself again.

2021 vs 2022 Race Data

2022 Lap time comparison

Tyres