Unforgiving Baku a serious challenge for crisis-hit F1 teams

There are any number of iconic moments from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix over the past seven years.

The bumpy surface, eye-wateringly high speeds approaching tight turns and claustrophobically close concrete barriers make sure of that.

Sebastian Vettel rammed Lewis Hamilton in fury at (he said) being brake tested on the formation lap in 2017.

A year later Daniel Ricciardo clattered the back of his teammate Max Verstappen at 350 kph when the Dutchman careered all over the pit straight illegally protecting his position.

Then in 2019 Charles Leclerc ploughed into the barriers on the foot of the city’s historic tower landmark after an epic qualifying misjudgement.

Verstappen’s exploding tyre in 2021 cost him an easy victory. Then Hamilton fumbled braking at the restart to throw away a famous victory just laps from home.

Baku is a real test of machinery as much as nerve. The track was added to the calendar in 2016 and an anodyne sweep of pole, fastest lap and victory by Nico Rosberg belied the drama that was to come.

He called the win on his way to a world title one of the most important of his career. Terminal speeds are epic – touching 350 kph in eighth gear – the margins narrow and the price for the smallest mistake paid instantly and, almost always, to a devastating degree.

So it’s not the ideal time for F1 teams to be arriving in a state of crisis as many are. After just three Grands Prix, Mercedes and McLaren have plunged into staff reshuffles.

Hamilton’s team has ditched the zero side-pod car design that cost them last year’s championship and probably, already, this year’s too.

In a typically bloodless Mercedes reshuffle, the top two design figures James Allison and Mike Elliott simply swapped roles.

But the fruits of their labours are unlikely to be seen until Imola, almost a month away.

The growing animosity between Hamilton and teammate George Russell promises to be one of the tastiest sub-plots of the year given the youngster outperformed the old master in 2022.

McLaren’s woes are even greater. Having bought in a new team boss over the winter, they have now axed their design head and split the role three ways to rebuild a car that has looked woefully uncompetitive and is yet to finish in the top five.

The ex-champions will be desperate to change their fortunes, not least to prevent one of the sport’s hottest properties, Lando Norris, walking out the door.

But key among those looking to reverse their fortunes are Ferrari. The hiring of Frederic Vasseur as team boss seems to have paid no dividends yet with the same tactical errors as 2022 creeping into the action.

Winter departures are rumoured to be followed by more in the coming months with morale sinking fast at Maranello.

This time last year, Leclerc was leading the world championship but now he sits 10th without a podium to his name, let alone a win, having failed to even reach the finish in two of the first three races.

Vasseur promised significant upgrades from Miami onwards, which suggests another weekend of pain for Maranello.

That makes sense since F1 plunges into the chaos of the first Sprint format of the season, and a re-tweaked one at that, which will allow precious little time for development running.

The Saturday afternoon 100km sprint race will have its own 30-minute qualifying that morning and the results will no longer affect the Grand Prix grid.

That will be decided by separate qualifying on Friday afternoon.

The Baku format will also be seen in Austria, Spa, Qatar, Austin and Brazil. While moves to provide more action for the fans is laudable, the new format means 20 drivers will be racing on Saturday for eight points places and those at the rear without a chance – perhaps six cars – will have no reason to compete.

Perhaps the thinking is that the flaws will be outweighed by the drama the new format provides at the front of the field.

As for Sunday, Ferrari have started on pole three times but never won. Sergio Perez and Verstappen have never started on pole but won the last two years.

So, much as Baku is a place of contradictions, it’s difficult to look beyond the pair for a fourth straight Red Bull victory of 2023.