Grand Prix thread AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX 2022

Bit early this week as I have a busy day Thursday.

51 laps of the 6.003-kilometre Baku City Circuit.

10th June Practice 1 12:00 - 13:00
10th June Practice 2 15:00 - 16:00
11th June Practice 3 12:00 - 13:00
11th June Qualifying 15:00 - 16:00
12th June Race 12:00 - 14:00

All times are UK times.

Poll closes before Quali.

 

Perez to double bubble!

 

Interesting race weekend this one.

RBR should be nippy on the long stretch, Ferrari mechanical grip should make them super strong everywhere bar the straight.

And of course, a well timed safety car can change it all!

 

Just as Mercedes are approaching the pit lane and Red Bull have just passed it

 

verstappen by 30seconds.

the high top speed of the red bull will be unassailable here.

 

14 mins into FP1 and Lance has “touched” the barrier to use his own words

 

Le Clerc looking mega in the middle sector as expected - losing time in S3

 

Have to say I don’t like the shorter practice formats these days. 90 mins wasn’t excessive and gave you something to watch and analyse.

 

Red bull have drs flap issues again! Looking at it when open they are going to have to be careful that it's not bouncing too far open. I think that's what the coloured dots are for. I think the stewards need to have a look as maybe the static tests are not enough!

 

it looks very borderline to me- if there are genuine issues in complying I assume a protest would be incoming?

They’re hammering Ferrari in sector 3

 

I don’t understand why they are allowed to run with the drs open during practice and qualifying. The whole point of drs is as an overtaking aid so shouldn’t be used at all in qualifying, only in the race.

 

I don’t disagree with you to be honest. I sometimes wonder if they do it to make the lap times on paper faster even though these latest cars are great big clumsy things with silly wheels!!

I have to say I don’t mind seeing a sprint race nowadays for the simple reason the cars actually look a bit more agile on lighter fuel loads and can just go at it for the duration of the sprint.

Still think there is much to consider to get F1 to the ideal place

 

Is it me or is it just a painful experience listening to Paul Di Resta?

Goodness me, he seems to bring a cloud of misery to every broadcast. I can’t even explain why!!

Him and Crofty for the weekend again, help us all.

And don’t even start me on FP1 when you’ve got Nat Pinkham and Rach Brooke’s essentially in the comm box. FFS

 

Had to pop out so missed most of fp2. Did I miss anything?

 

Nothing really mate- Ferrari edged this one with Le Clerc but again RBR look faster in S3.

Ferrari looked over a second a lap faster than Merc on long run but I didn’t catch the RBR long run times.

Midfielf from P5-P16 looks covered by around 1 second and could be even closer tomorrow

 

I always find people having the courage to make definitive statements like that after a Friday…well…interesting.

 

I like a definitive statement now and again.

Lots of things can go wrong for red bull. Their rear wing could fall off for one thing but by the look of it they are going to be unassailable on the straights and if behind will pass.

All things being equal they win and thst.means verstappen is let win.

I've called ferrari for the high downforce tracks and all hints being equal they would have won too but completely messed up on pits in rain/drying.

 

I wonder if there is anything Ferrari can do against Red Bulls top speed? They seem to have openly shown their hand - OK so we expected them to be rockets on the straight but surely Ferrari could have something up their sleeve to not be annihilated on the straights?
Well I can live in hope someone will stop Max

 

I dont know what is coming from, gearing, drag, power... but it's been there consistently all season.

The low end grunt is Ferrari's but they can't keep the red bulls back on that giant straight.

 

It'll be interesting to see if bottas and and k-mag show off some Ferrari grunt over the merc engines.

Gasly and alonso also ones to watch.