2022 Formula One Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Max Verstappen.jpg
Formula 1's eighth race of the 2022 season sees the field take to the streets of Azerbaijan with Red Bull and Max Verstappen carrying heavy championship momentum into the weekend.

Sergio Perez collected his first win of the season at Monaco the last time F1 raced, notching the fifth win for Red Bull over seven races. Red Bull and driver Max Verstappen now hold the lead in both the constructors and drivers championships.

Ferrari's strong start to the season has slowed somewhat, though Carlos Sainz managed to split the podium finishes for Red Bull last time out. His teammate Charles Leclerc was unable to collect a first victory at his home race, though his fourth place finish was better than many previous outings in Monaco.

George Russell's impressive season continued through the seventh race, as he crossed the line with his Mercedes with yet another top five finish. Teammate Lewis Hamilton looked stronger in Monaco than he had in previous races this season, but could not find his way past Fernando Alonso and was the first in a long train of cars that stagnated on a track where overtaking is rare.

Finishing behind Russell was Lando Norris, who has been the better performing driver for McLaren this season. His team finds themselves with a sizable gap to the next constructor in the championship for the first time this year.

Azerbaijan has typically afforded significant passing opportunities thanks to a long, flat-out and DRS-assisted run from turn 19 to turn 1, so this should be an exciting race. Ferrari will look to reclaim some momentum in the championship standings another strong finish from Sainz or Leclerc. Will the red team fight back against the blue team after having no wins since Australia?

What are your predictions for this weekend? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter @RaceDepartment
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Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

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I hope Ferrari is able to reverse the trend soon or it will be a long no fighting season to watch.
 
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I hope Ferrari is able to reverse the trend soon or it will be a long no fighting season to watch.
For sure, reliability is most important, everything else comes next..

To finish first, you first have to finish.
 
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D
Oh no! Poor LH!

How can we jusify him beating beaten by Russel every single race (while using the same car)?

I found it:
Let Wolf constantly say LH is the best driver but his car is bad.
Let's fix his halo cam so that it shows only the edge of a phosphoric helmet (unlike all other drivers).(Other drivers with porpoising? Who cares? Not poor drivers. They deserved their porpoising). Let's make the whole world compassionate at with him (again). Let's make the media focus on his every b!tch and moan on team radio.. You know.. He never lied in his complaints before.
Wow
 
Double Ferrari failure made the race quite boring. Happy for a Redbull 1-2 but I think Max and Charles would have had an interesting scrap when he caught up in the 1st stint. I really feel for Charles, he has hardly set a foot wrong since his spin in Imola but he continues to be let down by the team and car. Hopefully they can sort their car issues soon as two customer engines also failed today and races are going to be coming thick and fast during the summer stretch.
 
Horrible horrible horrible track - just a bunch of sharp 90° corners linked with an overly long straight. I fired up F1 2021 yesterday and drove a few laps, and it's an absolute chore to drive - I feel for the entire grid this weekend

Another street circuit that really doesn't suit F1 cars.

My money is on the safety car taking the top spot on the podium.
I love this track and idk why, its just satisfying for me especially in the new vrc fa 2022
 
I love this track and idk why, its just satisfying for me especially in the new vrc fa 2022
Each to their own, mate. I actually enjoyed driving the universally hated Sochi, and I'm guessing a lot of people are quite happy we won't being seeing that track again, at least not for a considerable while.
 
I will add my last 2 observations I already commented a lot more than the post race show, lol. But I'm passionate about cars and driving and I would like to listen to other people thoughts about the following:

1- The fact that Max was going to do the fastest race lap in his last lap then either failing by a tiny marginal margin or abandoning it to be mature towards Perez says that either those cars OR drivers still have much in their pocket to show if needed, or that he's a god-like driver who doesn't fear millimeters from walls no matter the bad tires.

2- I noticed in modern racing that leading cars stopped bothering about breaking the tow, for example: both Riccardo and Gasly totally gave up to LH and gave him all the slip stream he needed. (Probably they don't want marbles and dust? Or maybe there's a change in rules about weaving? because earlier, and unlike what people say, you can drive to the extreme right or left edge of the road, you can weave if this doesn't slow you down or make you go the longer way, you have the right to, as long as you're not erratic or dangerous, or driving someone off-track, or already in a brake zone, or causing a collision by brake checking ...etc).
 
You can weave, just not in the braking zone, which is where the trailing car usually catches up.
Ocon held up Hamilton by taking the inside line repeatedly in the DRS zone after t2. I'm beginning to think Ferrari have a high rpm issue. The longer the engine is at max revs, the more prone to failure.
 
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The fact that Max was going to do the fastest race lap in his last lap then either failing by a tiny marginal margin or abandoning it to be mature towards Perez says that either those cars OR drivers still have much in their pocket to show if needed, or that he's a god-like driver who doesn't fear millimeters from walls no matter the bad tires.
I think Max went for fast lap at the end because through the 2nd half of the race the team had asked him to slow down. This left him with a lot of tire at the end of the race as well as low fuel weight. He went for it and came short so I don't see them having extra pace in hand which they are not showing.

Also, both Max and Sergio went for fast lap after their last stop. Sergio's setup seems to lean more towards single lap pace and he was able to extract fast lap as a result.
 
I think Max went for fast lap at the end because through the 2nd half of the race the team had asked him to slow down. This left him with a lot of tire at the end of the race as well as low fuel weight. He went for it and came short so I don't see them having extra pace in hand which they are not showing.

Also, both Max and Sergio went for fast lap after their last stop. Sergio's setup seems to lean more towards single lap pace and he was able to extract fast lap as a result.
what you forgot to say i think max could manage his tires better 20 seconds on Perez today is a lot
 
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Oh no! Poor LH!

How can we jusify him beating beaten by Russel every single race (while using the same car)?

I found it:
Let Wolf constantly say LH is the best driver but his car is bad.
Let's fix his halo cam so that it shows only the edge of a phosphoric helmet (unlike all other drivers).(Other drivers with porpoising? Who cares? Not poor drivers. They deserved their porpoising). Let's make the whole world compassionate at with him (again). Let's make the media focus on his every b!tch and moan on team radio.. You know.. He never lied in his complaints before.
Not a Hamilton fan, but go back and watch the T-cam of him going down the start/finish strait late in the race. You could hear his car’s skid block bouncing off of the street the whole way in time with his head bobbing. Russell has outperformed him this year, but that porpoising was painful to watch today.
 
Horrible horrible horrible track - just a bunch of sharp 90° corners linked with an overly long straight. I fired up F1 2021 yesterday and drove a few laps, and it's an absolute chore to drive - I feel for the entire grid this weekend

Another street circuit that really doesn't suit F1 cars.
Couldn’t agree more. It’s a Mickey Mouse track, in my opinion. The long straights are pointless, even with DRS there was hardly any overtaking. The rest is a series of uninspiring turns.
 
Not a Hamilton fan, but go back and watch the T-cam of him going down the start/finish strait late in the race. You could hear his car’s skid block bouncing off of the street the whole way in time with his head bobbing. Russell has outperformed him this year, but that porpoising was painful to watch today.
I think there must also be a design flaw in the merc somewhere because mercedes bounces the most of all cars
 
I think there must also be a design flaw in the merc somewhere because mercedes bounces the most of all cars
Thank you and @chipwich for the reply.

But this is exactly my point! I watched all the on boards. They are all porpoising. All of them, lead cars and lapped cars, even Alonso who pretty much doesn't have a wing (down force) today. But if everyone is saying that Hamilton is having more, then OK, whatever, maybe he's having more. (where's that IDK emoji?), here: ).
 
Thank you and @chipwich for the reply.

But this is exactly my point! I watched all the on boards. They are all porpoising. All of them, lead cars and lapped cars, even Alonso who pretty much doesn't have a wing (down force) today. But if everyone is saying that Hamilton is having more, then OK, whatever, maybe he's having more. (where's that IDK emoji?), here: ).
if merc wants less porpoises... fixing the bouncing they'll have to give up more speed and probably won't even make it through Q1. The design of the car is bad for a team like merc

but who cares.. enough merc seen up front. Hope somewhere that Ferrari finds its way back, especially for Leclerc, he deserves better
 
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I honestly don't understand what Merc is hoping to achieve by continuously complaining about porpoising. Their car is fundamentally flawed, FIA can't change the regs mid season in a cost cap era when teams are already against the spending limits. So what is the solution? Do you want them to mandate ride heights? The solution is simple, raise the ride height and the problem goes away. But they are obviously not willing to do so as it slows them down.
 
D
I honestly don't understand what Merc is hoping to achieve by continuously complaining about porpoising. Their car is fundamentally flawed, FIA can't change the regs mid season in a cost cap era when teams are already against the spending limits. So what is the solution? Do you want them to mandate ride heights? The solution is simple, raise the ride height and the problem goes away. But they are obviously not willing to do so as it slows them down.
I would like to see Mercedes competitive again but the rules are thr rules and Mercedes have done a poor job. They are trying to get an interim rule change probably through engaging the drivers rather than the teams. There is nothing stopping Merc from raising the car.
 
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When the Ferrari's broke down it was like watching a footballmatch where one team was send home halfway the game. Felt really sorry for Leclerc.
Max showed Checo who is still the fastest at RB.
Checo burnt the best of his tires twice by going to fast to quick.
Still very impressed by his speed.
If one RB got a problem the other one is still capable of winning.
Been years since they had this privilege.
 

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