#Formula1 #AzerbaijanGrandPrix 2022 Preview. #F1 #AzerbaijanGP
Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2022 Race Start, Baku City Circuit, Baku, Azerbaijan, Image credit to Francois Nel/Getty Images. 2022 Azerbaijan GP Preview, Azerbaijan Grand Prix Preview, F1 Azerbaijan GP Preview,
2022 Azerbaijan GP Preview – After Sergio Perez scored his third F1-career victory at the Monaco Grand Prix as Red Bull out-strategised Ferrari, round eight of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the streets of Baku in Azerbaijan this weekend for the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2022. The inaugural Formula 1 race at the circuit was named the European Grand Prix. This will be the fifth event under the Azerbaijan Grand Prix banner. This will be back-to-back with the Canadian Grand Prix.
2022 Azerbaijan GP Preview – A look at the Baku City Circuit
The Baku City Circuit is a street circuit constructed near the Baku Boulevard in the capital city of Baku in Azerbaijan. The layout of the circuit was designed by German architect Hermann Tilke and the circuit itself is claimed to be the fastest street circuit on the Formula 1 calendar and the second longest after the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. The circuit will start adjacent to Adazliq Square, then will do a loop around Government House before heading west to the Maiden Tower. Then the track will have a narrow uphill traversal and then circle the Old City before opening onto a 2.2 km (1.4 mi) straight along Neftchilar Avenue back to the start/finish line.
“Our brief to Tilke Engineering was simple – create a circuit that is unique, one that will help the Grand Prix in Baku quickly establish itself as one of the most exciting, thrilling venues on the F1 calendar, and one that the fans and teams alike are excited about,” explained Azad Rahimov, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Youth and Sport. “Most importantly, we wanted a track that would showcase the best of Baku, our capital city, and I am delighted that the circuit has achieved exactly that aim.”
The Baku City Circuit runs in an anti-clockwise direction and is 6.003km (3.730 miles) in length with 20 corners.
The race distance is 306.306km (190.332 miles) in length with 51 laps in total.
Charles Leclerc holds the fastest lap record from the 2019 event with a 1:43.009 set in his Scuderia Ferrari SF90.
Sergio Perez (2021), (Not Held-2020), Valtteri Bottas (2019), Lewis Hamilton (2018), Daniel Ricciardo (2017) and Nico Rosberg (2016 – European GP) are the previous winners of the Baku Grand Prix.
Mercedes are the most successful constructor at the Baku Grand Prix with three victories (2019, 2018 and 2016 [European Grand Prix] to Red Bull Racing’s two (2021 and 2017).
2022 Azerbaijan GP Preview – Onboard Lap of the Baku Street Circuit
Here is the onboard pole position lap of the Baku Street Circuit from the 2021 event, set by Charles Leclerc in his Scuderia Ferrari SF21 racer. The Monegasque driver posted a 1:41.218. You can watch the footage right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmCkDAWp4C4
2022 Azerbaijan GP Preview – Tyres
Pirelli will be bringing with them to Baku, the white-branded C3 white side-walled Hard rubber, the yellow-marked C4 Medium tyres and the red side-walled C5 Soft compounds along with the green-branded Intermediates and blue-marked Full Wets in case of rain.
Drivers will have eight sets of the softs, three sets of the mediums and two sets of the hards.
2022 Azerbaijan GP Preview – DRS Zones
There will be two DRS zones on the streets of Baku with the first DRS zone 730 metres on the approach to turn one with the second DRS zone 630 metres on the approach of turn three.
2022 Azerbaijan GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits
Pitlane speeds will be 60km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.
ICYMI: Perez holds off Sainz to claim third-career victory in wild Monaco GP
Sergio Perez held off Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in a twice red-flagged to clinch victory at the Monaco GP, with early race leader Charles Leclerc finishing fourth as Red Bull outfoxed the Scuderia in mixed conditions.
Max Verstappen extended his Driver’s Championship lead over Leclerc with third place over the home race favourite, who had dominated the early proceedings that followed a long delay due to heavy rain soaking the streets of Monte Carlo.
Rain began to fall before the scheduled race time, which was pushed back at first by nine minutes before it was extended to 16 with a safety car deployed – on safety grounds from the FIA because there had been no prior running in the wet over the weekend – and in the gap the band of rain intensified.
The cars were sent out for two formation tours behind the safety car, with proceedings halted at the end of the second as the rain was falling to such a level that areas of standing water formed, with rivers running around La Rascasse as the pack went by, heading to the pits.
The cars remained there for 50 minutes before they re-emerged behind the safety car in a second formation lap procedure, which meant all cars were fitted with the blue side-walled full extreme wet rubber.
After two laps behind the safety car – taking the first two from the new race distance from 77 and during which Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll tapped the barrier at Massenet and suffered a right-rear puncture and his fellow Canadian-compatriot Nicholas Latifi crashed his Williams FW44 entry at the hairpin with low-speed, damaging his front wing – the race began with a rolling start at the end of the third tour.
Leclerc lead the pack, ahead of team-mate Sainz, Perez and Verstappen – his F1-75 racer fish-tailing around as he planted the throttle for the first time down the main-straight but staying in the right direction as the Ferrari driver lead the pack in St. Devote.
They made it through incident-free but spread out, many drivers coming side-ways out of Casino Square as Leclerc pulled to a 1.8 second lead by the end of the first lap as the Ferrari pairing lit-up their tyres quicker than the chasing Red Bull’s behind.
Leclerc soon moved clear of Sainz – the two Ferrari drivers quicker at different parts of the Circuit De Monaco, with the Monegasque driver regularly pulling a second clear through the first sector before Sainz gained a few tenths back in the second and third sectors as they worked their way down into the 1:30’s range.
By the 15th tour, Leclerc was leading by five seconds, as the front-runners discussed with their teams whether to switch to the green-marked intermediates as AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, Stroll and Latifi had done ahead of the race rolling-start.
Sainz insisted to remain out and going immediately on stints was the best option for the Scuderia, but it’s hand was forced when Perez, who had wanted inters, put them on at the end of the 16th lap.
The Mexican’s pace was so strong on that tyre that when Ferrari brought Leclerc in on lap 18, with Verstappen following suit and both taking intermediates, Perez jumped ahead and quickly chased down the other F1-75 of Sainz.
The Spaniard lead until the 21st tour, by which time Perez was only a few seconds behind the Ferrari despite having already pitted and Sainz completed a slippery out-lap, Red Bull brought Perez and Verstappen in.
As they exited the pits on the 23rd lap, Verstappen appeared to get very close to the pit-lane exit line and narrowly over it, Perez had jumped Sainz to take P1, with Verstappen slotting into third place ahead of title-rival Leclerc who was fourth.
The former dominant leader was brought in for a second time a few seconds behind team-mate Sainz, Ferrari giving Leclerc confusing radio messages about whether or not to come in and double-stack it’s drivers.
Now all the leaders were on the C3 white-marked harder compounds, but this time the Red Bull’s appeared to have better tyre warm-up – Sainz nearly losing his car as he ran closely behind Perez at the end of the 23rd tour.
Just as Perez was starting to secure the lead he had gained whilst Sainz was saving his side-ways scary moment, and then defending from Verstappen and the furious Leclerc behind, the race was disrupted again.
Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher was the first driver to put on a set of hards at the end of lap 18 and as he fought with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, he dropped his VF-22 racer running between the two Swimming Pool chicanes.
The impact was not at high-speeds, but the angles and forces saw the VF-22 split in two and as a result the barrier needed repairing and clearing a large amount of debris, with the red flags brought out again after the incident was initially covered by the deployment of the VSC then the full safety car.
After the 20-minute stoppage, Perez lead the field back out for another rolling start after two more laps behind the safety car – the order behind Sainz, Verstappen, Leclerc, Mercedes’ George Russell, and McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had lost out to his fellow British-compatriot by taking on intermediates for a few tours and the Mercedes remained out on full wets for several laps before going straight back to slicks.
When the race went green on lap 33, with the Ferrari’s on the same sets of hards they had been running before the second red flag, Perez and Verstappen were on fresh sets of C4 yellow-marked medium tyres. Perez was unchallenged into St. Devote.
The Mexican suffered a big lock-up into Mirabeau, but still had built of almost a second as the field returned to racing speeds in the 1:23’s range.
A few tours later they were into the 1:18’s, with the Ferrari F1-75 entries not falling back with slow tyre warm-up despite being on scrub set of the harder rubber.
But as the leaders exchanged fastest laps between the four cars over the next stage of the Grand Prix, DRS was now enabled and the pace reached the 1:16’s, Perez began to pull clear, and Leclerc, unable to stay in the 1:16’s, lost ground to Verstappen in fourth place.
By the 45th tour, Perez’s gap was 2.2 seconds over Sainz, and his main concern became catching the rear of the pack to lap the tailenders – a long snake having formed behind Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who had fallen back from Norris whilst leading Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
But 10 tours later, Ferrari’s hopes for Perez’s tyres to grain and wear finally arrived as the race leader fell back into the 1:18’s range, which meant Sainz rapidly evaporated his lead and closed in to under a second, with Verstappen doing the same and Leclerc also able to erase his earlier losses.
Ferrari urged Sainz to pressure Perez as the leaders encountered traffic – the trailing Verstappen not struggling as much keeping his medium tyres alive to the end, which by this point was the two-hour time limit after the repeated delays.
A final 10-lap charge ensued, with Sainz at first threatening to make a move into the Nouvelle Chicane, but got closest, and twice nearly ran into the back of Perez, at Fairmont Hairpin.
But a brave move for first place never came, with Verstappen not attempting to put a bold overtake on Sainz and Leclerc was kept at bay in fourth as a tense stable ending took place.
Perez completed the 64 laps and crossed the line to take the Monaco GP victory by 1.154 seconds over Sainz, who was just 0.3 seconds ahead of Verstappen, with the top four all covered by just 2.9 seconds.
Russell finished a quiet fifth for the Silver Arrows, having being steadily dropped off by the leaders in the tours after the second rolling start, with Norris pitting during the charge to the flag as he had enough of a gap behind thanks to Alonso’s slow pace, but the McLaren driver remained sixth.
Alonso’s lap-times did improve as the finish approached as he finished four seconds clear of Hamilton, who battled with Ocon ahead of the second red flag.
The duo tangled at St. Devote at one stage, for which Ocon was hit with a five-second time penalty that relegated the Frenchman out of the points from ninth on the track behind Hamilton at the finish.
This promoted Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas to ninth, as Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top ten.
Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Gasly was 11th and in-front of the aforementioned Ocon who took 12th and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who was 13th and Stroll in 14th.
The two other drivers who failed to finish were Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who stopped in the pits ahead of the closing proceedings and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who was forced to retire due to a water pressure loss just before team-mate Schumacher’s shunt.
2022 Azerbaijan GP Preview – The Situation
Max Verstappen heads to Azerbaijan sitting on top of the World Driver’s Championship Standings with 125 points and a nine-point-advantage over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who Is second on 116 points whilst Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez is third and a further 15 points behind the Dutchman and on 110 points.
From the tight, twisty streets of Monte Carlo to the speedy Baku – it’s time for another battle on a street circuit, and Red Bull Racing insist the fight is now a three-way as Perez joins Verstappen and Leclerc at the front of the field.
Perez, who occupies what was often called “the poisoned chalice” seat next to Verstappen, is in great form in his second season with the Milton Keynes based-outfit and coming off an excellent victory in Monaco has moved the Mexican just six-points off Leclerc, and 15 adrift of his reigning world champion team-mate.
Defending race winner Perez is not only in the title fight, but also holds the boost of a longer contract Red Bull have given a driver since Daniel Ricciardo, with the former Sauber, McLaren and Racing Point driver signed on until 2024.
Baku’s city streets, co-incidentally, is where Ricciardo and Verstappen’s Red Bull partnership finally unravelled following their spectacular collision in 2018, though Verstappen does not see a title-fight changing the relationship between him and Perez.
“Why would it change?” explained Verstappen. “We work really well as a team. We always try to optimise the car and work for the team, and we can accept when somebody does a good job or does a better job and I think that’s very important because that’s how you are respectful to each other,”
“May the best man win at the end, right? We always, of course, [are] trying to do the best we can on the track, but we also respect each other a lot.” Verstappen concluded, credit to Sky Sports F1 for the quote.
The door into the championship fight was opened for the Mexican due to Ferrari’s errors, with Red Bull Team Principal and CEO Christian Horner admitting the Prancing Horse have the car to beat.
Indeed, Leclerc has scored a hattrick of pole positions in a row but has not converted it to a victory since the Australian Grand Prix, and the Scuderia have been actively hindering it’s Sunday’s recently with a DNF at the Spanish Grand Prix and a strategy blunder in Monaco.
Leclerc openly criticised the team’s wrong calls and Ferrari promised an enquiry into the strategy calls that lead the Monegasque driver to what appeared to be a certain victory at home to a disappointing fourth-placed finish.
“We’ve had our briefing with the drivers, we went through it and tried to understand, but believe me, it was quite a complicated one,” explained Team Principal Mattia Binotto on the two costly pit calls for driver Leclerc.
“It was not an obvious one but certainly we made a mistake, We made a mistake as well because we should have called him earlier, or if not, we should have stayed out to protect the position. That main mistake is straightforward. What was the process that took us to that? It will take some more time to look at it and have a clear explanation.” Binotto concluded, credit to Sky Sports F1 for the quote.
For Leclerc’s championship aspirations, the Monegasque driver needs answers as soon as possible.
Oracle Red Bull Racing comes to Baku sitting on top of the Constructors Championship with 235 points and a 36 point-lead over nearest rivals Scuderia Ferrari who are second on 199 points while Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team are a further 101-points behind the Milton Keynes-based outfit in third on 134 points.
Click here for the World Driver’s (Top Ten) and World Constructor’s Championship Standings
Perez extends contract with Red Bull until 2024
After his triumph on the streets of Monte Carlo, it was announced on Tuesday May 31 that Sergio Perez has extended his contract with Oracle Red Bull Racing for two more years.
After joining the Milton Keynes based-squad at the end of the 2020 campaign, Perez enjoyed his most successful season in Formula 1 with 190 points and fourth place in the 2021 World Driver’s Championship standings, a season which included victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and four podiums.
Signing on the past weekend ahead of the race in Azerbaijan, the 32-year-old Mexican who currently sits third in this season’s Driver’s Championship standings, is on course to surpass this achievement this year. With seven Grands Prix of the campaign completed, Perez has 110 points to his name, including his maiden pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and victory in Monaco, which saw Checo become the most successful Mexican driver in F1 history passing compatriot Pedro Rodriguez’s win total.
Perez explained: “For me, this has been an incredible week, winning the Monaco Grand Prix is a dream for any driver and then to follow that with announcing I will continue with the Team until 2024 just makes me extremely happy. I am so proud to be a member of this Team and I feel completely at home here now. We are working very well together and my relationship with Max, on and off the track, is definitely helping drive us forward even more. We have built tremendous momentum as a Team and this season is showing that, I am excited to see where that can take us all in the future.” Perez concluded credit to Red Bull for the quote.
Red Bull Team Principal and CEO Christian Horner added: “Since joining Oracle Red Bull Racing, Checo has done a fantastic job. Time and again he has proved himself to not only be a magnificent team player but as his level of comfort has grown, he has become a real force to be reckoned with at the sharp end of the grid. This year he has taken another step and the gap to World Champion Max has closed significantly, evidenced by his superb pole position in Jeddah earlier this year and by his wonderful win in Monaco just last weekend. For us, holding onto his pace, race craft and experience was a no-brainer, and we are delighted that Checo will continue to race for the team until 2024. In partnership with Max we believe we have a driver pairing that can bring us the biggest prizes in F1.” Horner concluded. Credit to Red Bull for the quote.
The Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2022 weekend begins Friday June 10 with Free Practice One and Two, followed by Free Practice Three and Qualifying Saturday June 11 along with the 51 lap Race Sunday June 12.
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