2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Baku, April 28 - 30

[dialtone]

RB always get reigned in when they don’t have the two practice sessions. Ferrari’s pace on Sunday always questionable. Still fully expect Max to breeze past on Sunday

RB was great at Imola last year.

[ValeVida46]

RB always get reigned in when they don’t have the two practice sessions. Ferrari’s pace on Sunday always questionable. Still fully expect Max to breeze past on Sunday

RB was great at Imola last year.

Was there a race they weren't great?

[AR3-GP]

RB always get reigned in when they don’t have the two practice sessions. Ferrari’s pace on Sunday always questionable. Still fully expect Max to breeze past on Sunday

RB was great at Imola last year.

What about Austria and Brazil?

[214270]

[Big Tea]

I think that was the most uninvolving session I can remember. Wish I had stayed out.

[dialtone]

RB always get reigned in when they don’t have the two practice sessions. Ferrari’s pace on Sunday always questionable. Still fully expect Max to breeze past on Sunday

RB was great at Imola last year.

What about Austria and Brazil?

Eh yeah, pretty bad in those . I think it's fair that setup is difficult, look at Ferrari here with just setup changes and finally a decently faster lap than 2022, but it's not "always get reigned in" for RBR, they had a spaceship compared to everyone else and Leclerc's Ferrari aside they are still 0.6s ahead of SAI and 0.8s+ ahead of HAM, still a spaceship, just LEC had a monster lap.

[GrizzleBoy]

Nice lap by Lecock, hope we have a race on our hands on Sunday.

Exposed by your auto correct

[DGP123]

I think that was the most uninvolving session I can remember. Wish I had stayed out.

Pretty dull. The red flags just kill the sessions for me. The top 3 were fairly predictable from early on. Don’t see the pull of going through the same Q tomorrow at 09:30am. Doubt the viewing figures will be that high. Should be the same kind of order, probably Russell/Stroll further up. Then I’d expect a pretty conservative sprint race, with not too much risk.

[Juzh]

Leclerc is in a good position for sunday. I don't think RB have enough to overtake him on track, they couldn't last year and this year ferrari is almost a match on top end. RB is only faster by around 1-2 kmh before DRS and ~5 kmh with DRS.

DRS zone shorter by 100m will further make Leclerc's life easier.

Anyway, good performance by Lec, Verstappen matching his own PB in S2 from first q3 lap would still not be enough for pole (few hundredths off).

[tomazy]

This is the first GP this year that AM is not the most improved team from last year.


Ferrari: 1:40.203 - 1:41.359 = -1.156
RB: 1:40.391 - 1:41.641 = -1.250
Mercedes: 1:41.177 - 1:42.712 = -1.535
AM: 1:41.253 - 1:43.091 = -1.838
McLaren: 1:41.281 - 1:43.398 = -2.117
AT: 1:41.569 - 1:42.845 = -1.276
Apine: 1:41.798 - 1:43.173 = -1.375
Williams: 1:41.818 - 1:44.719 = -2.901
AR: 1:42.259 - 1:43.790 = -1.531
HAAS: 1:42.755 - 1:44.643 = -1.888

[Sieper]

I predicted the pole right, Ferrari have an efficient car this year. Still, a very good lap by Lec, deserved pole. the Ferrari clearly better balanced in those tight corners. Mercedes was a let down, didn’t expect them to be off. And certainly not by this much. So they have an inefficient car this year. On these highspeed tracks they will not be able to compete.

[ValeVida46]

Leclerc is in a good position for sunday. I don't think RB have enough to overtake him on track, they couldn't last year and this year ferrari is almost a match on top end. RB is only faster by around 1-2 kmh before DRS and ~5 kmh with DRS.

DRS zone shorter by 100m will further make Leclerc's life easier.

Anyway, good performance by Lec, Verstappen matching his own PB in S2 from first q3 lap would still not be enough for pole (few hundredths off).

I don't think that will be a problem if the Ferrari goes off the boil toward the end of the stint. Baku though isn't a standard track surface so that might be an outlier that helps them.

[AR3-GP]

This is the first GP this year that AM is not the most improved team from last year.


Ferrari: 1:40.203 - 1:41.359 = -1.156
RB: 1:40.391 - 1:41.641 = -1.250
Mercedes: 1:41.177 - 1:42.712 = -1.535
AM: 1:41.253 - 1:43.091 = -1.838
McLaren: 1:41.281 - 1:43.398 = -2.117
AT: 1:41.569 - 1:42.845 = -1.276
Apine: 1:41.798 - 1:43.173 = -1.375
Williams: 1:41.818 - 1:44.719 = -2.901
AR: 1:42.259 - 1:43.790 = -1.531
HAAS: 1:42.755 - 1:44.643 = -1.888

They had DRS issues so it's perhaps an outlier. Tomorrows sprint qualifying should provide more realistic comparisons.

[AR3-GP]

Leclerc is in a good position for sunday. I don't think RB have enough to overtake him on track, they couldn't last year and this year ferrari is almost a match on top end. RB is only faster by around 1-2 kmh before DRS and ~5 kmh with DRS.

It's 10km/h advantage with DRS on the final Q3 runs and that doesn't account for slipstreaming or the leading car depleting their ERS after several laps of defending.

[Sevach]

This is the first GP this year that AM is not the most improved team from last year.


Ferrari: 1:40.203 - 1:41.359 = -1.156
RB: 1:40.391 - 1:41.641 = -1.250
Mercedes: 1:41.177 - 1:42.712 = -1.535
AM: 1:41.253 - 1:43.091 = -1.838
McLaren: 1:41.281 - 1:43.398 = -2.117
AT: 1:41.569 - 1:42.845 = -1.276
Apine: 1:41.798 - 1:43.173 = -1.375
Williams: 1:41.818 - 1:44.719 = -2.901
AR: 1:42.259 - 1:43.790 = -1.531
HAAS: 1:42.755 - 1:44.643 = -1.888

Ferrari finally delivered their promised 1s+ improvement, and with qualy on friday.
Big improvement for Mclaren.