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As the most recently arrived
venue on the Formula 1 calendar, the Baku street circuit is the one that the
teams have the least information about, having only driven there once for
the inaugural race last year. Since then the technical regulations and tyre
characteristics have changed, so it’s once more a blank sheet of paper. The
tyres nominated for the longest and fastest street circuit of the year are P
Zero White medium, P Zero Yellow soft and P Zero Red supersoft: a
combination last seen in Bahrain this year (and also used in Baku last
year).
THE CIRCUIT FROM A TYRE POINT OF VIEW
- At 6.003 kilometres (including a 2.2km straight) Baku is the
second-longest lap of the year after Spa, with 20 corners.
- It’s known as ‘the city of winds’: these gusting winds can make car set-up
tricky.
- At the beginning of the up-hill old town section the circuit is very
narrow: and the cars are 20 centimetres wider this year.
- High top speeds over 360kph are expected on the straight: in 2016, it was
378kph.
- Part of the lap is on new asphalt, so teams will discover the grip in free
practice.
One stop was the winning strategy last year and this should be the case
again in 2017. |
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MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR
RACING
““Following Monaco and Montreal, Baku is the third non-permanent, low-grip
venue in succession, but it has a very different character. The lap is a lot
faster, with more energy going through the tyres, and track temperatures
could be very high, like last year. For these reasons, we’ve chosen a range
of tyres in the middle of the spectrum, which worked well in 2016. Maybe a
surprise back then was that there were no safety cars, despite predictions
to the contrary, so this could be a factor to consider when formulating race
strategy. With a combination of low-speed corners and long straights, it’s
quite hard to find the right balance, especially in terms of downforce.””
WHAT’S NEW?
- The Baku street circuit is largely unchanged in layout from the inaugural
race last year, with safety barriers having been altered in five or six
corners, especially Turn 15.
- If Lewis Hamilton claims pole position in Baku, he will have broken the
record of 65 poles established by Ayrton Senna and will be within touching
distance of Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 68 poles this year.
- It’s much more than possible that the lap record will be broken this year.
Currently the fastest lap ever of Baku is 1m42.758s in qualifying and
1m46.485s in the race. |
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