The Baku City Circuit not only features long, high speed straights but also slower speed corners at the ends of them which, as you might expect, places a more significant demand on the brakes especially as they will have cooled off on those longer, flat-out stretches. This means the Baku City Circuit is the circuit on the F1 calendar with the highest braking energy requirement, and actually features ten braking zones of over 2G!

Ferrari cool their front corner

Ferrari arrive in Azerbaijan with a circuit specific update to their front brake duct to help with these demands. The cooling exit area, or outlet, has been enlarged with the aim of covering off the “high duty” braking requirements of this circuit, in the team’s words to the FIA.

Red Bull focus on rear corner

Although not circuit specific, and instead performance focused, Red Bull have updated their rear corner for this event. The team say the inboard wing assembly has been mildly revised through the modularity of the parts which has allowed them to implement a camber increase for more local load, whilst maintaining the flow stability.

Mercedes bring new front wing for performance

Mercedes perhaps have the most sizeable, and visually obvious, upgrade package this weekend as they are introducing a new front wing. It features a reduced chord flap which will reduce its local load to enable more appropriate car balance when run in conjunction with a lower downforce rear wing.

Racing Bulls cover off cooling on both axles

The final team with updates for round 17 are Racing Bulls who have updated the geometry of their front and rear brake ducts to meet the circuit specific cooling range of Baku. The changes are to increase the cooling flow to the front and rear brakes to ensure things don’t overheat over the lap, and critically the race too.