We noticed two very totally different sides of the Baku Metropolis Circuit in the course of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend, with Saturday and Sunday fully 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 yr 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 predominant causes.
One is the tires – specifically the C6 compound introduced by Pirelli. It’s not the primary time the compound has been seen, however it does present a problem for the groups and drivers.
A senior engineer described it like being from a distinct 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 can be usually used elsewhere. As such, working the C6 would result in a big change in steadiness and automobile habits 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 vehicles, 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 arrogance to extract that efficiency then they won’t get the required lap day out of it on a road circuit.
Another excuse is that, in Baku, that confidence and suggestions from the tire to the motive force is especially essential.
The dominant nook profile at this observe is a 90-degree flip that leads onto some type of straight, often a protracted 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 can also make up a big margin in comparison with being cautious. A group 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 the vast majority of the corners. As an alternative of rolling pace in, it was about getting on the facility and believing that the automobile would grip up because the downforce elevated with an growing 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 observe, drivers would usually bail out on the method to the nook in the event that they didn’t really feel that they had all the things underneath management heading to the apex. It confirmed a calculated choice that it wasn’t price even the slightest contact with the wall in a observe session, so they’d take to the run-off space. The last word lap time didn’t really matter, simply the automobile dealing with and setup work. By qualifying, that weighting modified, and taking to the escape street would imply writing off a lap fully, 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 all many bitten in the course of the chaotic qualifying session on Saturday. Joe Portlock/Getty Photos
With partitions on the exit, there’s no room left to unravel that downside as soon as it manifests itself. Significantly on the C6 tire, the shortage of suggestions some drivers felt meant they weren’t getting the cues they’re used to relating to grip stage.
It’s no shock the C6 was averted by some groups throughout qualifying, and wasn’t seen in any respect in the course of the race – nor had been lots of the remainder of the weekend’s errors.
By the race, drivers know there isn’t any tomorrow to attempt to get well in the event that they hit a wall. Additionally they don’t fairly want that 0.2s per nook in the identical approach, 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 circumstances can nonetheless have dire penalties, and the timing wasn’t a shock. Race begins and restarts are sometimes the catalyst for incidents with drivers preventing 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 calm down.
Except there’s a transparent tempo distinction between vehicles, overtaking can turn into a tough steadiness as a result of a lunge on the brakes can not afford to fail, with zero run-off on the nook exits apart 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 offered 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 as a consequence of 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 sturdy.
