What to Expect of the 2019 Azerbaijan F1 GP?
This season it's the 4th time the F1 paddock has travelled to Azerbaijan to race trough the wild streets of Baku. The first race in 2016 was quite boring, but the 2 venues where very action packed and entertaining races.
This year might also be a wild race with 5 rookies and a lot of drivers, who have to proof a couple of things. So this 4th race of the season is set to be very exciting.
Ferrari still hasn't won a race in 2019 and is already looking up to a huge gap of 57 points in the F1 constructors championship. Mercedes can become constructors champions 6 times in row this season, but who is gonna stop this flawless team?
Ferrari could have one in Bahrain, but seemed to have turned down the power after their engine failure in Bahrain. The team order in China was a bit silly. It was only the 3rd race of the season and Vettel and Leclerc were driving on 3rd and 4th place! It looked like that Ferrari wanted to give Vettel his first podium for 3rd place.
Red Bull is lacking downforce but has really done some steps in reliability and top speed this season. Max Verstappen is driving very solid and scored most points ever in his career on eve holds 3rd place in the drivers championship. If Pierre Gasly would have shown a better performance, they might have equalled Ferrari in the championship. Now they are 21 points behind.
The tight midfield is like Russian roulette, very unpredictable.
Next venue is the 4th Azerbaijan Formula 1 Grand Prix driven on the Baku Street Circuit.
2019 Azerbaijan GP Facts & Figures
The first Azerbaijan Grand Prix was held in 2016 and won by Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes W07. The race was called the European Grand Prix at first, but changed in to the Azerbaijan GP the next season.
Successful Drivers
Out of the current drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton won the race once. You might not believe it but Sergio Pérez won the most podiums in Baku with two 3rd places.
Lance Stroll also won a podium in 2017 for Williams. It was the last podium for Williams since then. He finished 3rd, but could have finished as 2nd if Valtteri Bottas wouldn't have passed him just before the finish line.
Sebastian Vettel statistically qualified best in Baku with an average grid place of 2.3. Second best are Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas, scored an 4.3 average grid position.
Successful Teams
The most team victories are scored by Mercedes in Azerbaijan. They won the grand prix 2 times and also scored the most podium places with 3. Red Bull won here once. Ferrari never won the race in Baku until now.
All this info can be found on our Azerbaijan Grand Prix info page.
Baku Street Circuit
The Baku Street Circuit is driven anti-clockwise. With 6.003 km length it's the second longest circuit on the 2019 F1 Calendar. The Street circuit has 2 DRS zones and has 20 corners. 12 left-handed and 8 right-handed turns. The last 4 corners (17 to 20) aren't real corners, because they can be taken flat out.
The slowest corner of the track is turn 9 and taken with 75 km/h. It's also the most narrow corner of the season with only 7.6 meters of tarmac.. The fastest corner is turn 20, which is a corner that drivers take flat-out with 325 km/h!
The official lap record of 1:43.441 min is set during the first race in 2017 by Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari SF70H. Although the cars of last year were a lot faster then in 2017, the track record hasn't been broken yet. The main reason for that is that the race use to be held in June, when the temperatures are a lot warmer.
2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Infographic
What happened in last years 2018 Azerbaijan F1 GP?
Top 3 Azerbaijan 2018: 1. Hamilton, 2. Raikkonen, 3. Perez
At the start all cars got away clean, but In turn 3 of the first lap there were a few incidents which caused the safety car to deploy. Ocon and Sirotkin had to retire, Raikkonen pitted for a new nose and Alonso for a new nose and 2 punctures. Hartley Grosjean, Perez, Magnussen en Ericsson also made did a pitstop.
The safety car returned to the pit at the end of lap 5 and the race restarted when Verstappen passed Ricciardo and had a good fight on his hands with Carlos Sainz in the Renault who was driving on a softer compund and also had passed Ricciardo.
In the 11th lap Hulkenberg hit the wall in turn 7 and retired with a broken left rear suspension. In Lap 16 Carlos Sainz pitted to get rid of the ultra's and return to the track on the soft yellow tyres.
At the beginning of lap 22 Lewis Hamilton had a full lock to get into turn 1 and left the track. He pitted ride after this incident to get rid of the heavy vibrations the flat spots generate.
Race leader Sebastian Vettel didn't react to the pitstop of Hamilton and was able to drive good lap times until lap 30, when he got fresh soft tyres to drive to the finish.
In lap 36 Ricciardo had a good tow from his team mate Verstappen on the long straight to pass him with 344 km/h. He pitted for ultra's in lap 38 to attack the guys in front. A lap later Verstappen also got the purple ultra's and came back on the track in front of team mate Ricciardo.
The lap after Ricciardo wanted to pass his team mate again on the long straight with DRS. He did his best, but got blocked by Verstappen and then drove into the back of Verstappen's Red Bull RB14. Both drivers had to retire from the race! The safety car deployed again to clean up the track while Valtteri Bottas was able to pit quickly when the safety car deployed and kept the lead in front of Vettel.
Romain Grosjean had a very bad afternoon when he was waving his car over the track and lost control to crash into the wall behind the safety car when he tried to warm-up his tyres. In lap 4? the safety car came in and Valtteri Bottas got passed by Sebastian Vettel at the end of the long straight to take the lead, but out braked himself and lost 2 places.
Next lap (50) race leader Bottas his right rear tyre blew up and retired his Mercedes from the race, while Sergio Pérez passed Vettel for P3.
Azerbaijan F1 GP 2019 Tyres
Baku is the longest and also the fastest street circuit on the Formula 1 calendar, thanks to some lengthy straights that form the majority of the 6.003-kilometre track: the second longest of the year after Spa. However, while the speeds are high, the track is narrow – and that combination has caused a few incidents in the past. As was the case at the last round in China, Pirelli brings the C2 as the hard tyre, C3 as the medium tyre, and C4 as the soft tyre: right in the middle of the range.
- Baku is known as the ‘city of winds’ – which have an effect on the aerodynamics. In the past there have been very high track temperatures, but cool weather as well. It’s a tough race to predict.
- The long straights have the effect of cooling down the front tyres in particular – a bit like China – which can cause a risk of front locking.
- Last year the race was won with a two-stop strategy, but this was influenced by two safety cars. In fact, the safety car has been out in the last two of the three Azerbaijan races held to date, so all strategies have to be flexible.
- As is always the case on a street circuit, the surface tends to be ‘green’ and slippery at the start of the weekend especially, and grip is affected by features such as white lines and surface changes, Degradation is generally low on the smooth surface.
- Another factor affecting grip levels is the fact that there are patches of light and shades along the circuit, which is downtown and surrounded by high buildings. This means that the track temperature can vary of different parts of the circuit. The race starts at 4.10 pm, so temperatures can fall quite quickly.
Selected sets for the 2019 Azerbaijan F1 GP
Azerbaijan GP Weather Forecast
The weather forecast this weekend at Baku is International Circuit looks to be dry with a minor change on rain..
Friday, April 26th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Partly cloudy
Max. temperature: 19°C
Chance of rain: 0%
Saturday, April 13th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Sunny clear sky
Max. temperature: 17°C
Chance of rain: 0%
Sunday, April 14th - Race
Conditions: Mostly sunny
Maxi. temperature: 18°C
Chance of rain: 0%
The race starts on Sunday 28th of April 2019 at 13:10 GMT.
Don't forget to take part in our F1 Poule to win 2 tickets for the 2020 Belgian or British F1 GP.
You can change your prediction until the start of the qualifying session.
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