We saw two very different aspects of the Baku City Circuit over the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend, but Saturday and Sunday were in complete contrast.
The race itself took Max Verstappen 1h33m and completed the victory from the right-out to the checkered flag, but it took the Dutchman 1h58min to finally secure pole position in qualifying.
This year, as long as we set up a grid in Baku for Saturday’s session, the race didn’t last. But how did they then progress from six red flags and nearly two hours of qualifying to the untracked Grand Prix after the first rap-off of Oscar Piastri?
There are two main reasons.
One is the tire. In other words, it is a C6 compound brought about by Pirelli. It’s not the first time a compound has been seen, but it poses challenges for teams and drivers.
Senior engineers explained that it was from a different family of tires compared to other Pirelli ranges that do not feature the same properties as C5 to C1, which are commonly used elsewhere. So running C6 changes the balance and car behavior significantly compared to the C5 or C4, which was also offered in Baku.
Some of the feedback was the C6, which lacked consistency and stability in a particular car, and affected the driver’s trust. Even if the rubber is theoretically faster in one lap in the same controlled environment, if the driver is not confident in extracting its performance, it won’t get the lap time needed on the path circuit.
Another reason is that in Baku, confidence and feedback from the tyres to the driver are particularly important.
The dominant corner profile on this track is a 90-degree turn, which usually leads to long, straight ones. There is very little corner sequence, so there is a lap time at the corner exit each time.
Getting that exit correctly can compensate for a large margin compared to being careful. Team Source estimated there was a 0.2 seconds difference between the corner the driver committed and the corner he waited until he was certain he could get on the throttle.
The decision to apply full acceleration was explained as bets were being made when it was still zero percent throttle. This was a characteristic of most of the corners. Instead of slowing down speed, it was to ride the power and believe the car would grasp as the downforce increased.
For reference, a more traditional approach to other corners on the calendar is explained as having to make that bet at about 80% throttle, only calling for a time to commit to the final 20%.
In reality, the driver will often bless the approach to the corner if he doesn’t feel that everything heading towards the top is in control. The practice session showed a calculated decision that even a small contact with the wall was worthless, so they would bring it into the drainage area. Ultimate rap time wasn’t really important. All you need to do is handle and set up the car. By qualifying, its weight changes and going to the escape road means completely reducing the lap, especially when there is very little chance of setting time. As a result, drivers commit to corners at the limits and sometimes they have too much speed, or they are not clutching as planned when the car is about to accelerate.
Baku has no room for error. Charles Leclerc was one of many who were bitten during Saturday’s chaotic qualifying session. Joe Portlock/Getty Images
There is a wall at the exit, so when the problem appears, there is no room left to solve it. In particular, with C6 tires, there was no feedback that some drivers felt, meaning they didn’t get the clue they were used to with regard to grip levels.
It’s no surprise that C6 was avoided by some teams during qualifying, and we didn’t see it at all during the race.
In races, drivers know that if tomorrow hits a wall, they won’t try to recover. Also, unless it’s a direct wheel-to-wheel combat, it doesn’t require 0.2 seconds per corner in the same way. Tires can be taken into consideration during one-stop races. It’s a fairly simple task in the end, but in part necessary by the desire to avoid C6 using C5 in qualifying. The remaining margin will be larger.
As Piastri’s crash showed, slight misjudgment and lockup in windy conditions could still have disastrous consequences, and the timing wasn’t a surprise. The start and reboot of a race is often the catalyst for incidents with drivers fighting on relatively low grip surfaces, but when navigated neatly, as if followed by off-of-the-championship leader, the race can settle.
Unless there is a clear difference in pace between the cars, the overtaking is a tricky balance as the brake charges do not afford to fail, and there is zero outflow at corner exits other than turn 16.
Baku’s disruption grid provided the perfect material in many ways. Watching Carlos Sainz’s surprise podium and the tough Sundays of McLaren and Ferrari, mostly seeing races without incident, due to the grid position.
The chaos was calm on Saturday and settled on Sunday, which was a hallway and tire feature, and in combination with the weather kept the Baku danger game strong.
