How teams will approach their Baku F1 upgrade paths

By:

Jake Boxall-Legge

Apr 25, 2023, 11:44 AM

Formula 1 returns after a three-week hiatus to one of the trickiest circuits on the calendar. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku has always been an outlier for car set-up, as street track norms are thrown out the window. The unforgiving walls and tightness of spare parts also makes bringing upgrades a fine balance of risk and reward, making for an interesting approach from teams

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The 2.2-kilometre stretch along Neftchilar Avenue, overlooking the Caspian Sea, rather sets the cat among the pigeons when it comes to devising the best set-up for the Baku City Circuit.

The usual convention for years on a street track was, owing to a plethora of 90-degree corners and the need for pinpoint handling control between concrete walls, to bolt on the biggest wings available. After all, low speeds equal lower downforce, so in the equation for lift force (expressed as a negative to define downforce) other variables must be increased to compensate.

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Jake Boxall-Legge

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Jake studied engineering at university, as his original ambition was to design racing cars. He was bad at that, and thus decided to write about them instead with an equally limited skillset. The above article is a demonstration of that. In his spare time, Jake enjoys people, places, and things.