2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Baku, April 28 - 30

[kediown]

It was 2022. Perez took P3, Leclerc was P1 and Sainz was P2. Then the magic happened

Ferrari strategy masterclass?

[PlatinumZealot]

The race was OK. Not as bad as people making out. I really didn't fall asleep or get up for a cup of tea so that's how I judge them.

I take from this is that Mercedes has improved but so have others, and that Aston Martin has extremely good tyre life!

Checo is getting to grips with the car and has been very close to Max this year. The championship fight is on!

[Juzh]

You were thinking that RB might have a difficult time passing because of last year (even though we never saw the conclusion because of a retirement).

So what reason does Ferrari have to "Save for later". In their pole lap, it was 10 km/h. If they are diverting energy to another part of the lap, then when they use it on the straight, they are losing laptime in another, more important part of the lap. This would just mean it allows RB to get even closer through S2/S3 if Ferrari are diverting energy to use on the main straight.

If I remember correctly we had similar situation last year and Ver wasn't able to close up a lot. Anyway we'll find out in few days time.

We will, but again I can't stress enough how much the first stint on high fuel with soft tires is about management, not all out concern for overtaking. If it would come easy, he would have went for it but the first stint isn't really the time to attack so we'll never know.

As it turns out you were right, I wasn't expecting this much difference. Last year's RB18 was already a sunday specialist and RB19 goes two steps further still, how else to explain this performance swing from low to high fuel. This allowed rb drivers to stay within 0.5-0.6s exiting final corner which is more than close enough to pull off a move. Last year they could barely scrape within 1s.

[dialtone]

Yeah I was wrong too on the DRS, RB-19 is superior, doesn't look like anyone else though was able to pass in the top 10. Also I didn't watch the race because it was at 4am and I already saw the race yesterday.

[AR3-GP]

Yeah I was wrong too on the DRS, RB-19 is superior, doesn't look like anyone else though was able to pass in the top 10. Also I didn't watch the race because it was at 4am and I already saw the race yesterday.

That's alright. There was nothing that we didn't' already see yesterday

[cplchanb]

Pirelli should've just given the teams the softs and meds. Even c3 was way too hard here. The race was set 2 laps after the sc came in.

This race could've only been saved by someone crashing out or refueling to mix up the strats. 1 stop races are just terrible for this sport now becusse you can't pass, can't burn the tyres and everyone pretty much is thinking the same strat.

[Sieper]

especially if a safety car comes out the strategy is out of the window. And on street tracks that is bound to happen. If it happens soonish it is everyone on the whites and manage to the end.

[renault rs26]

Pirelli should've just given the teams the softs and meds. Even c3 was way too hard here. The race was set 2 laps after the sc came in.

This race could've only been saved by someone crashing out or refueling to mix up the strats. 1 stop races are just terrible for this sport now becusse you can't pass, can't burn the tyres and everyone pretty much is thinking the same strat.

We had extremely interesting 2012 but people don't understand sport and always complain, requested durable tires and this is what they got.

[Sieper]

If De Vries hadn’t binned it the strategy would have been much more interesting.

[Wouter]

[falonso81]

Pirelli must bring back the 2012 tyres. No artificial mini gp, no sprint. Bring back those tyres. Prevent nursing, make them push!

[harty71]

So, have we now accepted that this regulation change was a waste of time, the cars appear as difficult to follow as they always have been.

[PlatinumZealot]

So, have we now accepted that this regulation change was a waste of time, the cars appear as difficult to follow as they always have been.

You're mixing things up a bit there. With these regs it was openly recognized that the cars would follow closer in the turns and less so on the straights. So tracks like Baku where you rely on slip stream passes will always seem worse than the tracks where you rely on tyre deg, braking zone style passes.

Cars ahead not spoiling the air as much as they did in previous regs.

[chrisc90]

It seems pretty close on the intervals between drivers today. I think those who followed closely, and didnt make a overtake had problems with the tyres overheating.

[chrisc90]

Crazy how much different the lap times were today.



Red Bulls 8 tenths roughly quicker than the ferrari, nearly a second in some sections.
Mercs 7 tenths slower than the AMR/Ferrari