Azerbaijan Grand Prix Lacks Thrills: F1 Drivers and Experts Weigh In
May 1 - Sunday's main feature Azerbaijan GP was "not a thriller".
That was the summation of Mercedes boss Toto Wolff after Sergio Pérez led home yet another Red Bull 1-2.
Grand Prix Drivers' Association director George Russell flagged the likely difficulty of overtaking at Baku earlier in the weekend when he chastised the FIA for shortening the DRS zone.
Russell's Mercedes boss Toto Wolff told ORF after Sunday's Baku race: "Overtaking has always been good in previous years, but we probably shortened the DRS zone too much.
"We've learned now for next year."
However, the drivers deny that DRS is the only problem.
"The cars this year are generating a bit more downforce and so the car behind struggles a little bit more to follow," said Red Bull's Perez.
Verstappen agreed: "I also think because of the weight of the cars we have nowadays, in the low speed it's a bit harder to follow too.
"As soon as you have a tiny moment with that weight, it becomes a bigger slide, it's harder on the tyres so you overheat the tyres more," he explained.
"I remember in 2015 or '16, you could take a few different lines, run a kerb because the cars were a lot softer than what we run now. But it's really, really hard nowadays because the cars just don't allow it."
Russian F1 commentator Alexey Popov agrees that the "new generation" cars of 2022 and 2023 are actually proving difficult to race at certain circuits.
"The argument is 'change the track, don't change the track' but the problem is that these cars were designed to have more racing - but there isn't more racing," he said.
"From my point of view, it's urgent to stop the teams from improving them even more. Every time they improve, all the air that they tried to prevent is starting to get more and more.
"And this is the result - very little racing," Popov added.
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It was as exciting as the Monaco GP. Both have beautiful scenery, but the race is boring. Baku is bit more challenging because less run off and greater chances of hitting the barriers, which in turn lengthens the time of the procession. Just my opinion, of course
Baku has slightly more runoff space, but a similar race in Monaco is more bearable because such races are a norm & thus fully expectable.
Yawn and stretch ......... Oohhhhh ..... it it finished already? I guess I must have dozed off!
I'm never keen to see anyone crash into barriers or walls, but at least it does break the procession boredom!
The worst 2023 race so far & the second-worst Baku race, but not all races can become instant classics.
Yes, shortening the activation zone by 100 meters may have been unnecessary, especially as following is seemingly harder than last season, although the downforce amount itself isn't the problem.
The minimum car+driver weight indeed affects driving at slow-speed corners, although following ability is still mostly down to aero designs.
I really like the GP. Sure it's wasn't full of action. But quite nice and sort of a laptime battle. It surprised me that Verstappen couldn't really attack Pérez for the lead.
Further more Hamilton was his old self again and made a great recovery after having some back luck (for a change) with his pitstop.