BAKU, Azerbaijan — Since joining the Formula One calendar Azerbaijan Grand Prix has forged a reputation for being wild and unpredictable. This year’s event has been no exception and we haven’t even reached the race yet.
To recap, here’s what’s happened so far:
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On Friday, a loose drain cover shredded through the underside of George Russell’s Williams car in the early moments of opening practice when he drove over it at high speed. The English driver predicted it had been 10-15 millimetres from breaching the cockpit.
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That session was immediately cancelled so safety checks could be carried out on the rest of the 6km circuit, which features more than 300 drain hole covers. Kimi Raikkonen said the incident made F1 « look like amateurs ».
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While Russell’s car was being driven back to the pits, the recovery vehicle collided with the bridge that sits over the exit of the pit-lane.
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Williams, a team already strapped for cash and spares, had to scrap Russell’s chassis and build up his car around a new one, one of the biggest jobs an F1 team can be forced in to over a race weekend. This was completed in time for Saturday’s track activity.
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After being delayed to carry out those checks, the Formula 2 qualifying session went ahead 30 minutes behind schedule. It was still in the opening stages when Sean Gelael, who has made five FP1 appearances for Toro Rosso over the past two seasons and is the son of the man who runs Indonesia’s Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise, knocked over two marshals as he bump-started his car while they were pushing him off the circuit. Neither was hurt, but it could have been an incredibly serious moment. Gelael was disqualified from the session.
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That F2 race on Saturday included a farcical moment, too. During a Safety Car restart (common at Baku races) McLaren development driver Sergio Sette Camara and Luca Ghiotto tangled before the field had even reached the start/finish line and both crashed out, prompting the Safety Car to come straight back out again.
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FP3 passed without incident, but qualifying did not. In Q1, Robert Kubica buried his Williams into the barriers at Turn 8, having hit the inside wall by misjudging the point of turn-in, just to really add salt to Williams’ wounds. Williams has confirmed it has enough spares to fix his car in time for the race, but it has accumulated a hefty repair bill this weekend.
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That wall wasn’t done wrecking weekends there. Charles Leclerc ruined what looked to be a great chance for pole position in Q2, running too deep at the corner and going straight into the same barriers the marshals had just spent 30 minutes repairing. After another delay, Q3 started as the light around the circuit started to diminish and the sun set.
So, as you can see, it’s been a fairly frantic weekend already. Anyone with a good memory will recall Baku’s previous two races being epic spectacles, arguably the best races of their respective seasons. Given how the weekend has unfolded so far, it’s fair to ask what we can expect from Sunday’s main event.
Will the craziness continue on Sunday?
There’s no reason to expect anything less. The Baku circuit is a perfect blend — a race track that is quick and creates genuine overtaking opportunities, while also brutally punishing small mistakes in a way only street circuits can in the modern era of permanent circuits with no gravel and big run-off areas.
Daniel Ricciardo, the winner of the 2017 classic here, spoke about why the circuit is so good earlier this week.
« Many explanations, » he said. « It is like the Macau of F1 because you’ve got a street circuit so the walls create the risk. Low grip, because it is a street circuit, so more chance to make mistakes. Low downforce, so more chance to make mistakes. And crazy high speeds because of this long straight. So you get massive slipstreams, tows [from other cars]. And that brings the racing close together.
« A lot of the corners are low speed so you don’t get a big loss through the aero side, so you can hang close [to another car] through the whole lap. Then massive tows on the straight. It is all that, then the high speed at the end of the straight when you are going 340km/h, 350km/h, that just creates a level of adrenalin that probably gets us a bit more jacked up than we normally are. »
One thing he forgot to mention is how a culmination of incidents in Baku can leave bits of debris scattered around the circuit. If these are detected they can justify a Safety Car in order to be removed, but Valtteri Bottas knows all about how that isn’t always possible — he was robbed of victory last year when he sustained a puncture after driving over a piece with a handful of laps remaining. Add to that the fairly strong breeze which blows around this venue, placed on the coast of the Caspian Sea, and there’s another element for drivers to consider.
A small rule change might alter one of the more dramatic parts of this race. Safety Car restarts have been modified for 2019, with overtaking now only allowed at the start/finish line rather than the line before it — known as the ‘Safety Car line’. This is especially relevant at Baku, as its long backstraight can give a huge slipstream effect and in previous years saw a bunch of cars all battling for position much earlier than they will be allowed to this year.
That doesn’t stop the lead driver from controlling the pace of the restart, as has been the case in previous years. This led to an infamous flashpoint in 2017 when Sebastian Vettel, incensed at how slowly Lewis Hamilton was managing the pace, drove alongside the Mercedes driver and slammed into his car. Pierre Gasly was also left incensed with Kevin Magnussen last year when the Haas driver nearly smashed him into the wall as they both roared down the long back straight at a Safety Car restart. So you can add ‘high chance of controversy’ into the Baku cocktail, too.
With both Ferrari’s arguably starting out of position compared to raw pace and Gasly set for a charge through the field from his pit-lane start in what looks like a very fast Red Bull, there are plenty of ingredients in place for Baku to serve up another spectacle today.
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