Next race is France, the Paul Ricard circuit is also interesting from a driving perspective. It's somewhat similar in that the brakes and riding them is important, however, this circuit demands an entirely different setup than Azerbaijan.
The biggest difference is that there is more long corners where the car's suspension has to settle and simply carry speed. Particularly in sector 3. Another added challenge that Baku lacks is the undulations that exist on the exits of some critical corners in sectors 1 &2. Therefore you have to run a much stiffer setup, you don't want the car bottoming out on corner exit, and at the same time you need some damper compliance because you can win a lot of time using the kerbs or not unsettling the car on corner exits.
The entry is still important but most corners have a nice high entry speed with a lot of downforce helping you aim the car, the most difficult part is positioning the car on compound corners and nailing the exits. So the car needs to be stable on change of direction and under compression.
As usual the biggest differentiator of performance is how you use the tires, the soft tire will require management of the rears and front left. The medium will work very well with minimal management needed, but it will not make a one stop. The medium tire in Paul Ricard, is the same hard tire that exploded in Baku. The hard tire can likely go the distance but it has a critical flaw in that the front right will be very prone to graining, due to the corners in sector 3.
After the chicane in sector 2 the cars go full blast through a series of right hand turns putting plenty of heat in them, but the right front becomes neglected until the final 4 corners, and it requires you to brake deep and lean on the tires to get the lap time. That puts a lot of surface temperature on the tire but not a lot of carcass temperature.
The requirement is pitch sensitivity on turn in, but insensitivity over bumps, and transients for the exits. Also the setup should promote even tire temperatures because of the front right graining which means stiffer anti-roll bars in general.
A small understeer balance on corner exit is preferable particularly for the exit of the slow turns.
The most important turns from a lap time perspective is 2 4 5 6 8 9 11 12 and 14.
There is a small dip after the apex of 6 that makes it tricky to pin the loud pedal. If you can keep the car stead on the exit of 9 there's a lot of time to be found. 11 has a really late apex, and finessing the brake to keep the nose pointed in the right direction is crucial, all the time is gained on the exits.
12 and 14 are weird corners, aggressive and finesse both seem to work, and neither seem to help with tire graining.
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