We noticed two very totally different sides of the Baku Metropolis Circuit through the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend, with Saturday and Sunday utterly contrasting.
The race itself took 1h33m for Max Verstappen to finish victory from lights out to the checkered flag, whereas it took 1h58m for the Dutchman to lastly safe pole place in qualifying.
No race this 12 months lasted so long as Saturday’s session to set the grid at Baku, and it gave us a staring order that was notably engaging. However then how did we go from six purple flags and a close to two-hour qualifying, to a grand prix that ran untroubled after Oscar Piastri’s first-lap off?
There are two essential causes.
One is the tires – particularly the C6 compound introduced by Pirelli. It’s not the primary time the compound has been seen, nevertheless it does present a problem for the groups and drivers.
A senior engineer described it like being from a unique household of tire in comparison with the remainder of the Pirelli vary, and never that includes the identical traits because the C5 to C1 which are typically used elsewhere. As such, operating the C6 would result in a major change in stability and automobile conduct in comparison with the C5 or C4 that had been additionally on provide in Baku.
A part of the suggestions was the C6 missing consistency and stability on sure automobiles, and in flip impacting driver confidence. Even when the rubber was theoretically faster over one lap in an similar, managed atmosphere, if a driver doesn’t have the boldness to extract that efficiency then they won’t get the required lap trip of it on a avenue circuit.
Another excuse is that, in Baku, that confidence and suggestions from the tire to the driving force is especially essential.
The dominant nook profile at this monitor is a 90-degree flip that leads onto some type of straight, normally an extended one. There are only a few nook sequences, so lap time is discovered within the nook exit every time.
Get that exit proper and you may make up a major margin in comparison with being cautious. A staff supply estimated there was 0.2s distinction between a nook a driver dedicated to, and one the place they waited till they had been sure they may get on the throttle.
The choice to use full acceleration was described as a wager being made when nonetheless at zero % throttle, such had been the traits of nearly all of the corners. As a substitute of rolling pace in, it was about getting on the ability and believing that the automobile would grip up because the downforce elevated with an rising pace.
For reference, a extra conventional method to different corners on the calendar was described as requiring that wager to be made at round 80 % throttle, simply making a name on when to decide to the ultimate 20 %.
In apply, drivers would typically bail out on the method to the nook in the event that they didn’t really feel that they had every part below management heading to the apex. It confirmed a calculated choice that it wasn’t price even the slightest contact with the wall in a apply session, so they’d take to the run-off space. The last word lap time didn’t truly matter, simply the automobile dealing with and setup work. By qualifying, that weighting modified, and taking to the escape highway would imply writing off a lap utterly, when there are so few possibilities to set a time, notably in a session that always sees incidents. It resulted in drivers committing to corners on the restrict, typically discovering they’ve carried an excessive amount of pace in, or that the automobile isn’t gripping up as deliberate as they attempt to speed up out.
There is no margin for error at Baku. Charles Leclerc was one in every of many bitten through the chaotic qualifying session on Saturday. Joe Portlock/Getty Pictures
With partitions on the exit, there’s no room left to unravel that drawback as soon as it manifests itself. Notably on the C6 tire, the dearth of suggestions some drivers felt meant they weren’t getting the cues they’re used to in relation to grip stage.
It’s no shock the C6 was prevented by some groups throughout qualifying, and wasn’t seen in any respect through the race – nor had been most of the remainder of the weekend’s errors.
By the race, drivers know there is no such thing as a tomorrow to attempt to get better in the event that they hit a wall. Additionally they don’t fairly want that 0.2s per nook in the identical manner, until in direct wheel-to-wheel fight. With tire saving to take note of throughout a one-stop race – ultimately a reasonably easy activity, but additionally partly necessitated by the need to keep away from the C6 having used the C5 in qualifying – the margins left are greater.
As Piastri’s crash confirmed, a slight misjudgment and lock-up in windy situations can nonetheless have dire penalties, and the timing wasn’t a shock. Race begins and restarts are sometimes the catalyst for incidents with drivers combating on a comparatively low grip floor, but when one is cleanly navigated – as was the case following the championship chief’s off – then the race can cool down.
Until there’s a transparent tempo distinction between automobiles, overtaking can grow to be a tough stability as a result of a lunge on the brakes can’t afford to fail, with zero run-off on the nook exits aside from Flip 16. That nook requires the perfect exit of all to arrange for the 1.3-mile flat out run to Flip 1, the primary overtaking spot.
Baku’s mixed-up grid supplied the right components in some ways, with even a largely incident-free race seeing a shock podium for Carlos Sainz and a troublesome Sunday for McLaren and Ferrari, all attributable to their grid positions.
The chaos got here on Saturday, the calm on Sunday, and it was nook and tire traits that mixed with the climate to maintain Baku’s jeopardy recreation going robust.
