The Azerbaijan Grand Prix, or European Grand Prix as it was called in its first year, debuted on the F1 calendar in 2016 and over its past eight grands prix has gained a reputation as a chaotic, thrilling race where really anything is possible.

And that’s largely owing to it taking place on a rather unique street track, the Baku City Circuit, designed by the renowned architect of some of F1’s most iconic venues – Hermann Tilke. He’s quoted as having described the design process as “very challenging, very interesting and very difficult” but the result is a circuit that combines incredibly high speed with slower, narrow, technical sections – all surrounded by the tight walls and limited run off you’d expect.

Sector 1 features straight runs separated by four 90° corners, three to the left and one to the right, before the drivers head into the narrow old town sector 2. This sees them run through the infamous turns 8-11 castle section where, at points, just 7.6 metres separate the walls and the turns are not only uphill, but also blind.

The drivers then continue uphill through turns 13 and 14, before dropping down into turn 15, which as a downhill 90° left-hander is an incredibly tricky braking zone to get right. Sector 3 begins one corner later and after exiting turn 16, it’s all about getting the power down as soon and as sharply as possible to maximise the 2.2km run at full-throttle all the way back to turn 1.

Characteristic Considerations

Balancing the setup

The split in characteristics sector to sector in Baku make finding the optimal setup a real challenge for the teams, given that they are in direct conflict with each other. Sectors 1 and 3 reward very low downforce and drag and thus slim rear wings (Monza-like levels), whereas sector 2 requires a Monaco-level, higher downforce setup.

It means there is no ‘on paper’ solution to finding the ‘correct’ setup – it will look different for each team. But the balance has to ensure that they are not a sitting duck to their rivals down the 2.2km run into the only real overtaking zone (T1), nor are they struggling for traction through the historic old town part of sector 2.

Last year, McLaren and Ferrari were fighting out front for pole and both cars were running a setup that emphasised average speed over top speed. As a result, much of their lap time was coming in the middle sector with their final sector compromised the most by that setup direction. In direct contrast, Sauber had fantastic top speed owing to a lower downforce direction yet lacked strength in the lower speed sections, which made them slowest in sector 2 and overall.

Braking

Daniel Ricciardo said in 2018 that “the trickiest thing in Baku is braking” given that the braking zones require commitment but with very little, if any, room for error. Getting that right requires confidence, but getting it wrong can be very consequential not only to a driver’s own lap, or race, but also those around them who may get hit by yellow flags, compromising their own efforts.

The City of Wind

Baku is also known as the ‘city of wind’ and for good reason. There can be strong crosswinds that whip off the Caspian sea across turn 1 but turn 15 can also be affected. This links back to braking, as the braking points themselves can shift, but where the wind direction moves to produce a head- or tail-wind along the main straight, the impact on top speed can also be notable.

The Compounds

On top of these characteristic balances, the teams will also have new tyres to contend with compared to previous years in Baku. For one last time this year Pirelli have selected their softest possible range so the C6 will be the soft, the C5 will be the medium, and the C4 will be the hard. It means the range is a step softer than last year as Pirelli continue their mission to force the teams into considering a strategy beyond the one-stop.

Baku has classically been a one-stop race by standard, and while this is unlikely to change as a result of the teams using the C6 itself during a grand prix, it could change down to the rest of the range pulling softer.

Pirelli themselves have stated that, given the low grip and wear levels in Baku, defaulting to the same selection as last year would have given rise to very similar, if not identical, strategies through the field – namely the one-stop. Considering how resistant this year’s tyres are to graining, at least by pushing the compounds themselves softer, the two-stop is at least a possibility rather than a complete non-starter.

So far this year, the C6’s selection has given rise to a two-stop strategy through it bringing the medium and hard softer too. In Montreal for example, typically a classic one-stopper, the race trended as a two-stop for the leaders who combined an opening medium stint with two hard stints. The C6 itself did feature during the grand prix, but only in short stints as some opted to pit under the late safety car caused by the McLarens colliding, and its use in Baku is likely to be very similar.

These softer compounds are likely to react to Baku’s demands differently too. The cooling and heating cycle around an individual lap is a particular concern due to the sector makeup. Around the lap, the tyres’ surfaces go through continuous heating and cooling cycles as they are put under different stresses at different points.

Of particular concern for the drivers will be how much the tyres cool off running down the straight from turn 16 to turn 1, and how that impacts the braking zone that follows. Not only does the front axle cool off from around 90°C to around 50°C by the end of the straight, but the brakes themselves are also impacted and this can mean they’re prone to locking up – catching the driver out when starting a lap in qualifying, when battling a rival, or even at safety car restarts.

The Weather

As things stand, the weather isn’t likely to play too much of a role this weekend in Baku as it’s predicted to be warm and dry for the majority. Although there is a small chance of showers on Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, and then a change to overcast on Sunday, the race itself is likely to remain dry. The maximum temperature over all three days will be around 25°C.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix begins with Free Practice 1 at 12:30pm local time on Friday September 19th. The rest of the timings for the weekend are as follows (all in local time):

• FP1: Friday 19th September, 12:30-13:30
• FP2: Friday 19th September, 16:00-17:00
• FP3: Saturday 20th September, 12:30-13:30
• Qualifying: Saturday 20th September, 16:00-17:00
• Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Sunday 21st September, 15:00