2016 European Grand Prix - Baku City Circuit, Fri 17 – Sun 19 Jun

[Wynters]

Hulkenberg said: “I think it is different from team to team, some teams do have a simulator that has the track already – we don’t, so for us it’s really going to be starting from scratch and having to learn the track."

I'm even more impressed by FI's pace.

Initial impressions suggest it's a lovely track. Interesting that Hamilton found so much dust in FP1 when he actually went close to the walls. I think it shows how careful the drivers were for most of the session. I wonder how close people will be willing to push in Quali. Put a car hard into the wall and replacement components could prove costly in the long run.

[GrayGreat]

yea, he lost 1.2 seconds because of that mistake. One thing fore sure this track will heavily penalize any mistakes on the part of the driver.

I seriously fear for any driver who goes into that run off area during the race from missing his turn. He'll have to do a 180 turn or even worse reverse first. Gonna lose a lot of time there

lewis went off in 16, it has a huge amount of run off space.

Turn 16 is the turn before long straight, and I don't remember anyone going off there. Lewis ran off 2 times in turn 13, which justmoi is talking about, I believe, and once in turn 1. Turn 1 is the one with the largest run off area.
Edit: I remember now Lewis went slightly off in 16 right after he went quickest through the first two sectors.

[Gaz.]

Ferrari and red bulls off the pace. It's clear now. They won't be troubling podim positions at all.
Formula PU106C:
mercedes
williams/force india

Formula rest:
ferrari/toro rosso/red bull/mclaren

Yet Manor are absolutely nowhere. Maybe it's something else like RBR & Ferrari unable to get their tyres working, as per their driver's comments, maybe you could loan them your grinding wheel to generate a bit of heat instead.

[NL_Fer]

I hope they were just recording tyre degredation on both soft compounds.

[j2004p]

Sorry, that's not an argument that holds much water with me. That's actually part of my point. Placing kerbs on this track where they have effectively neuters it.

Why do the drivers need to have 'something' to 'negotiate' with?

You've stated it yourself. Without kerbs the balancing act is negotiating the wall, which seems a much better application of skill than 'negotiating' an arbitrary point like a kerb.

As such, removing the kerbs would place a much higher emphasis on the driver than the car.

OK, maybe I'm missing something and if I am I apologise, but what would you prefer instead of a kerb?

A wall or a white line with identical flat tarmac to the main track on the inside of the white line?

[godlameroso]

Pole will be 1:41 - 1:40

[wickedz50]

So far only a Lewis win in Baku...
FI for podium prediction wow!!

[Gaz.]

So far only a Lewis win in Baku...
FI for podium prediction wow!!

I have a feeling that Baku is going to be both a car breaker and a high error track which will cause a very high attrition rate, making it hard to make any reasonable prediction.

[Pierce89]

Sorry, that's not an argument that holds much water with me. That's actually part of my point. Placing kerbs on this track where they have effectively neuters it.

Why do the drivers need to have 'something' to 'negotiate' with?

You've stated it yourself. Without kerbs the balancing act is negotiating the wall, which seems a much better application of skill than 'negotiating' an arbitrary point like a kerb.

As such, removing the kerbs would place a much higher emphasis on the driver than the car.

OK, maybe I'm missing something and if I am I apologise, but what would you prefer instead of a kerb?

A wall or a white line with identical flat tarmac to the main track on the inside of the white line?

He's saying that the walls should have been the edge of the track, because it then places more weight on driver skill and car placement.

[FoxHound]

Both Ferrari and Red Bull are struggling for grip and cannot get the tyres to work.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... -raikkonen

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ricci ... p-789165/?

Set up is being compromised, and they don't know where they are or how to proceed wing wise...

No need for a baiting comment, so it has been removed

Ahhhh cmon mods....every race it's the same story with that particular fellow....

[Pierce89]

Ferrari and red bulls off the pace. It's clear now. They won't be troubling podim positions at all.
Formula PU106C:
mercedes
williams/force india

Formula rest:
ferrari/toro rosso/red bull/mclaren

Unfortunately, I believe you're correct. At this track, the Merc engine is worth at least a second over the Renault and probably 1.7-1.8 over the Honda. Red Bull already claimed that they will lose 1.2 seconds just on the main straight, but I don't believe it would be quite that extreme.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 4wLvZtm_g/

[digitalrurouni]

Hamilton full lap onboard:

https://streamable.com/n6az

Wow thanks for that!!!

[godlameroso]

Who thinks we're going to see some team shake and bake action? With the very long straights and long flat out sections it may be a viable strategy. A team with poor top speed but good downforce can tow each other through the lap switching positions, this could especially useful because of DRS during the race, the person in front may not have DRS while a team can stick with each other and use the DRS to their advantage.

[F1NAC]

Is it possible that we see here the best form from mercedes. They really nailed it

[kooleracer]

Hamilton full lap onboard:

https://streamable.com/n6az

Wow thanks for that!!!

What a great camera angle! Great track, really surprised by the enormous corner speeds. This will be a classic venue. The last sector will be action packed during the race. Great slipstream possibilities, also the marginal run-off areas will require maximum concentration from the drivers during the race a small mistake will be severely punished.

Great job by the nation of Azerbaijan =D>