F1 2022: Azerbaijan GP - Baku (June 12)

[NYG]

Baku

When was the track built?

It wasn’t – Baku is the newest street circuit on the Formula 1 calendar, joining the ranks of Monaco, Melbourne and Singapore.
When was its first Grand Prix?

The first Grand Prix in Baku was held in 2016, as the European Grand Prix. That was followed by the inaugural Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2017, which witnessed one of the biggest upsets of the season, with Daniel Ricciardo winning out from Valtteri Bottas and the Williams of Lance Stroll, while Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel engaged in some argy-bargy behind the Safety Car.
What’s the circuit like?

A mixture of wide and open and tight and twisty. The lonnnnng main straight along the Baku shoreline is a slipstreaming mecca, and with cars able to run three abreast into Turn 1, the action often looks more IndyCar than F1. However from there, the track loops around into the city’s narrow, winding Icheri Sheher old town, dramatically wending past Baku’s medieval city walls. As in Monaco, slightest mistakes are punished quickly and severely, while set-up wise, the teams are forced to choose between downforce for the twisty bits and less drag for the straight.

Why go?

As with all city tracks, spectating at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix means that you’re right in the middle of the action when the cars get put back in their boxes. Baku itself is a buzzing city, while food is a key part of Azerbaijan’s culture, incorporating elements of Turkish and Middle Eastern cuisine – so eat up!

Where is the best place to watch?

The principal Absheron grandstand at the end of the main straight should be high up on your viewing wish-list, as you’ll be watching the cars braking from around 350km/h into the 90-degree Turn 1 – and you’ll likely get to watch the lion’s share of overtaking too. Elsewhere, the Icheri Sheher grandstand provides a unique vantage point, as you watch the cars wriggle through the city gate section and power on down to the super-fast Turn 13-15 complex.

https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2...n/Circuit.html

2021 GP highlights:

[NYG]

I'm signed up for a back to back win for Sergio!!

[TheBingoBalls]

Originally Posted by NYG

I'm signed up for a back to back win for Sergio!!

Nah. This is a Max track.

VER
LEC
SAI/PER (whoever doesn't show why they're a number 2 )

[GuidoK]

I think this will be a RB track. Also with how strong and durable the RB engine block seems to be (Max is still on this first engine)
It will be interesting to see how MERC will be performing. They have a fast car (with that I mean top speed), very important with the long straigths but is porpoising really gone and can their very stiff suspension that they seem to have to run handle a street circuit with such high speeds?

My prediction:
1. VER
2. PER
3. RUS
4. LEC
5. HAM
6. SAI
7. NOR
8. BOT
9. OCO
10. KMAG

Baku is an awesome track through a beautiful city. Some parts remind me a bit of Paris.

[NYG]

Originally Posted by TheBingoBalls

Nah. This is a Max track.

VER
LEC
SAI/PER (whoever doesn't show why they're a number 2 )

You're not wrong but I'm going with my wildcard prediction. Sainz DNF.

PER
VER
LEC
RUS
BOT

[Killed by Death]

That long straight is a Ferrari killer.

1. VER
2. PER
3. RUS

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

I think this will be a RB track. Also with how strong and durable the RB engine block seems to be (Max is still on this first engine)
It will be interesting to see how MERC will be performing. They have a fast car (with that I mean top speed), very important with the long straigths but is porpoising really gone and can their very stiff suspension that they seem to have to run handle a street circuit with such high speeds?

My prediction:
1. VER
2. PER
3. RUS
4. LEC
5. HAM
6. SAI
7. NOR
8. BOT
9. OCO
10. KMAG

Baku is an awesome track through a beautiful city. Some parts remind me a bit of Paris.

That's about the sum up of my prediction too.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

That's about the sum up of my prediction too.

Bad day for Ferrari then
My guess is that they're going to give Max a new engine and give it a very aggressive tune (because he still is on his first engine/turbo/etc), so I expect his car to be very fast.

[NickyC]

Always a great track, and probably my favorite to drive on in the F1 games!

[F87source]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

I think this will be a RB track. Also with how strong and durable the RB engine block seems to be (Max is still on this first engine)
It will be interesting to see how MERC will be performing. They have a fast car (with that I mean top speed), very important with the long straigths but is porpoising really gone and can their very stiff suspension that they seem to have to run handle a street circuit with such high speeds?

My prediction:
1. VER
2. PER
3. RUS
4. LEC
5. HAM
6. SAI
7. NOR
8. BOT
9. OCO
10. KMAG

Baku is an awesome track through a beautiful city. Some parts remind me a bit of Paris.

Holy moly RUS above even LEC?!

I don't think the merc has a top speed advantage, I think it is competitive now but not ahead everyone else. In terms of porpoising street tracks don't help, and some guys on f1tech have speculated/heard it was due to limited suspension travel rather than running too stiff. So they kind of don't have the dampening they would want.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by F87source

Holy moly RUS above even LEC?!
due to limited suspension travel

That would be really amateuristic from their engineers/designers...
I have a hard time believing that that would be the problem. I mean, they've been racing in monaco for over 90(!) years, so they know exactly how bumpy it is. Designing suspension with too little travel would be an epic fail.
If that is the case, they will certainly have the same problem in Baku.

Unless of course it isn't limited suspension travel, but just too little ride height... I mean suspension travel is dependant on the ride heigth, otherwise your floor is constantly bottoming out, resulting in disquaification.
But why too little ride height? not enough downforce from the new floor? Design flaw to solve the propoising?

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

Bad day for Ferrari then
My guess is that they're going to give Max a new engine and give it a very aggressive tune (because he still is on his first engine/turbo/etc), so I expect his car to be very fast.

This is what I'm thinking ,a new second PU for Max would spread out the wear rate. As far as aggressive tune I would be wary of the tyre deg with thoughts of last years blow outs.

[F87source]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

That would be really amateuristic from their engineers/designers...
I have a hard time believing that that would be the problem. I mean, they've been racing in monaco for over 90(!) years, so they know exactly how bumpy it is. Designing suspension with too little travel would be an epic fail.
If that is the case, they will certainly have the same problem in Baku.

Unless of course it isn't limited suspension travel, but just too little ride height... I mean suspension travel is dependant on the ride heigth, otherwise your floor is constantly bottoming out, resulting in disquaification.
But why too little ride height? not enough downforce from the new floor? Design flaw to solve the propoising?

No clue what the real reason is, but that's the rumbling on f1technical, apparently they are working on an upgrade to fix this for Baku but again it is speculatory.


It is ground effects era you have to try and run as low as possible to get downforce, which drops off exponentially with ride height. It isn't really dependent on how much downforce the floor makes, rather how well the floor is sealed. Because an overall high downforce producing floor can make less downforce vs. an overall low downforce producing floor at the same increased ride height if it is sealed worse. This is why I believe mclaren did pretty well in monaco, because it is known their floor is sealed very well with the immesenly powerful vortices that run along the floor, so despite them likely making less downforce vs. the top teams, the ride height increase for the street circuit dropped all the top teams down to mclarens level (who with the better sealing were able to lose less downforce). The sealing effect is probably exemplified at low speed because the air traveling over and under the floor is slower so the voritices produced are weaker. This means if a team has really weak sealing vorticies the seal gets even weaker at low speeds, further benefitting cars with better sealing. So in essence it is the combination of sealing and ride height increase that really hurts teams in terms of downforce not just ride height.

[3798j]

Pleased that RBR formally stated they won’t block Perez’ fight for the title…and did it quickly after asshole Jos Verstappen’s crying and criticizing comments about the Monaco GP results.
https://www.gptours.com/gr_news/red-...rez-title-bid/

[M5Rick]

^Couldn't see you saying the same to support BOT when he and HAM were fighting for the title in Merc..

[3798j]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

^Couldn't see you saying the same to support BOT when he and HAM were fighting for the title in Merc..

Think you missed what I was pleased about...RBR formally stating that both drivers have their right (and RBR's permission) to fight for the championship. I could be wrong, but I don't recall Mercedes Benz expressing that.

[F87source]

Originally Posted by 3798j

Think you missed what I was pleased about...RBR formally stating that both drivers have their right (and RBR's permission) to fight for the championship. I could be wrong, but I don't recall Mercedes Benz expressing that.

+1

Merc never stopped Bottas or Rosberg from fighting for the win until it was near impossible for the other driver to feasibly win given that the other team driver was also in the mix. So this means if it's a 3 way fight for the battle: 2 Merc drivers + another team, there will be no team orders if the 2 Merc drivers are close. If 1 of the 2 drivers is really far behind and not capable of a guaranteeing a win every weekend then they will be forced to help the lead driver in a tight championship.


This is why Bottas always was given a chance at the start of the season but he always fell off later on so he had to help Lewis.

Merc also let Bottas have wins back when he was forced to give Lewis position to prevent others from getting into his pit window. So to be fair redbull still owes check one.

[Rono63]

Almost every team says they don't have a number 1 driver but race strategy indicates otherwise.
When they use a more aggressive strategy for one driver over the other such as under cutting. Very few times is pit strategy the same for both cars.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

Bad day for Ferrari then
My guess is that they're going to give Max a new engine and give it a very aggressive tune (because he still is on his first engine/turbo/etc), so I expect his car to be very fast.

You nailed it completely

[NYG]

Originally Posted by 3798j

Pleased that RBR formally stated they won’t block Perez’ fight for the title…and did it quickly after asshole Jos Verstappen’s crying and criticizing comments about the Monaco GP results.
https://www.gptours.com/gr_news/red-...rez-title-bid/

Even though I'm a fan - I don't actually think Jos' statement is that bad. If you tried to listen to him speak in videos and then transcribe it to text, it comes across the wrong way. Kind of like Helmut Marko. They're just both very blunt people who call things as they are and their English doesn't have enough range to match it. That's why they come across as pricks when reading their quotes but neither of them really are in my opinion. Just professional, honest and outspoken people.

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by 3798j

Think you missed what I was pleased about...RBR formally stating that both drivers have their right (and RBR's permission) to fight for the championship. I could be wrong, but I don't recall Mercedes Benz expressing that.

You are right Merc didn't say that and is why the general thought was that HAM would have the advantage.

[3798j]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

You are right Merc didn't say that and is why the general thought was that HAM would have the advantage.

Mercedes Benz isn't the first team to favor one driver. I should add that I care little about them and their reasons. It's obvious that MB's way bothers you but as a Red Bull fan you should also be pleased that Marko and Christian plainly state their first concern is winning the manufacturers championship.