What we learned from Thursday practice at the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP

Although likely apocryphal, it has been said that Baku's etymology can be traced back to "Badkube" - a Persian word for "wind-beaten". It has influenced its nickname, 'the city of winds', owing to the heavy gusts that burst through the urban sprawl, manoeuvring through the blend of Turkic and Imperial Russian architecture.

Over the 10 years in which Formula 1 has come to town, those gusts have been just one of the many hurdles present around the six-kilometre course around the city centre, permeating the space between the slavering walls and the bumpy road surface to put each driver in a continued state of peril.

Except, as it turns out, not on Thursday. There was barely a flutter from the colossal Azerbaijani Tricolour upon the flagpole, instead hanging limply as Baku's natural wind machine could muster little more than a light breeze. No sudden changes in wind direction to hinder a driver's braking. No balance shifts mid-corner as gusts remain placid at best. 

That's not to say that the drivers didn't make mistakes, as is customary upon Baku's streets; Arvid Lindblad's clip with the wall at Turn 9 was the most high-profile, as he estimated that he'd gone a "millimetre" beyond the limit at the famous pinch-point around the Old Town's 'castle' walls. But that was all it took to set his Racing Bulls car onto an irreversible course into the next wall, prompting his stoppage and a red flag. 

Lindblad's crash was the only major error. Instead, the issues over Thursday practice were more likely to be mechanical; Kimi Antonelli's quest to further his title pursuit received a minor dent when he suffered a hydraulics issue in FP1 - and an overzealous marshal's decision to shove the nozzle of his fire extinguisher into the car and empty its contents into the engine bay prompted a power unit swap between sessions. Carlos Sainz had a brake fire. Nico Hulkenberg suffered a stoppage on-track. Ollie Bearman's engine decided to stop as he left the pitlane for the FP2 restart. McLaren had to cable-tie its bargeboards to the chassis. The wind's buffeting might have ceased, but the cars nonetheless faced a stormy time of it on-track.

All of this was good news for George Russell, who enjoyed a largely unchallenged run to top spot in both practice sessions as Antonelli played catch-up, but it's hard to say that Mercedes' rivals really showed their hands. Max Verstappen showed good early pace, Lando Norris bailed on a hot lap as he looked set to get close to Mercedes, and you never really know what you're going to get with Ferrari either. It's all a bit up in the air at the moment...perhaps a bit of wind later in the weekend will shake it all out in place.

Russell got into the groove in Baku swiftly, as team-mate Antonelli played catch-up after an FP1 hydraulics failure

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

Russell's turns at the top were helped by some well-timed slipstreams from other cars on the way to the finish line, even if FP2's tow from Gabriel Bortoleto got a bit dicey as the Audi driver didn't immediately jump out of the way. The power of the tow will be crucial in qualifying; when the cars are low on energy and gasping for power out of Turn 19, having less drag on your side means less of your engine power is spent on overcoming that drag. And when you're down to the 530bhp produced by the engine alone, every horsepower spent on forward momentum counts.

A well-timed tow could bring a few surprise packages into play or, alternatively, leave the traditional front-runners on the cusp of an early bath as they grapple with their timings and track position. That's the beauty of Baku qualifying - there's always a surprise around the 90-degree corner...

Average FP2 long runs

In truth, the long run data available from FP2 isn't all that long - so please take the following with a grain of salt. However, it seems to be the case that Mercedes does look to have a pretty healthy advantage over the rest of the field as it currently stands - per Russell's 'long' run on the medium tyre.

That said, deputy team principal Bradley Lord is attempting to keep a lid on things as he fills Toto Wolff's throne this weekend. "Again, we've seen competitors bring pretty big update packages. If you look at McLaren, Red Bull as well, they'll be absolutely in the mix," Lord mused.

"I don't think the gaps at the top after FP2 are representative of the true gaps in performance. I think everything will be much, much closer once we're all running the same number of laps on the tyres. We hope to be in the mix. We should be in the mix on a low-drag circuit like this, having performed really strongly in Monza, but we'll have our work cut out to get on pole."

Red Bull and McLaren, conducting their runs on the soft, appear to be evenly matched. Verstappen seemed to show more of his hand across FP1 and FP2 over the McLaren duo, which kept their sessions very low-key. The returning Isack Hadjar couldn't show a great deal either, as he was hurt by a gearbox issue during FP1 and thus required a swap between sessions to hamper his first running in an F1 car since the Hungarian Grand Prix in July.

Baku's long straight might be a touch out of McLaren's wheelhouse, given that the Woking squad runs shorter gear ratios versus its main rivals; it gives the cars better acceleration, at the expense of top-end speed. Some of this is visible in the GPS data: Norris is losing most of his time relative to Max Verstappen at the end of the main straight, although deployment will also play a part here too.

Ferrari isn't too far away; Charles Leclerc's tow off Liam Lawson on his best FP2 lap was of great benefit to overcome some of the power disadvantage in the SF-26, but the car wasn't necessarily the easiest to work with around the rest of the circuit. Hamilton, in particular, said that it was very difficult to switch the tyres on - even with an out-lap and a build lap before pulling the pin for a qualifying-type effort. 

"It's always a complex Friday, but I think this one is a bit more difficult to read," Fred Vasseur stated, encapsulating this writer's thoughts when attempting to come to some kind of conclusion. "For sure, each parameter of performance, fuel, engine is making a bigger difference than on a normal track. But [the drivers] were not very pleased with the balance. It means that we have a lot to do tonight to find a good solution for tomorrow. And let's try tomorrow."

Ferrari has a bit of overnight work to do if it is to get closer to Mercedes and co

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

The midfield battle makes for some interesting reading, simply because it's so close. Alpine has perhaps a half-second step on the rest, as the A526 is particularly handy on power circuits (see: Gasly's Monza pole) which should allow the Anglo-French team to get into the groove around Baku. 

But then there's nothing between Audi, Williams, Racing Bulls, and Haas in race trim, although one suspects that the VCARBs are capable of a bit more pace given that Liam Lawson's 'long' run was on the medium tyre (versus softs for the rest) - and we didn't get a chance to see what Lindblad could produce either. Team boss Alan Permane revealed that Racing Bulls' low-drag approach for this race has helped the team with the final sector, but needs to find more of a balance through the rest of the circuit to bring it back towards Alpine.

Williams' updates seem to have gone down well with the drivers, helping it catch back up to the midfield cluster, although neither is expecting the new floor and lighter chassis to give it the means to surpass those teams. It perhaps didn't show its best in terms of single-lap pace, but the race runs will have been encouraging. Meanwhile, Cadillac is also not too far away, and Sergio Perez reeled off a handy lap in FP2 to sit 13th overall - albeit himself helped by a tow down the main straight. We can't forget that the Mexican driver is a bit of a wizard around Baku; what betting a surprise result from Perez, a man who has won twice around this circuit?

At the very least, the American squad is well clear of Aston Martin, which looked slow through Lance Stroll's soft-tyre stint. Fernando Alonso missed most of FP2 with an oil leak, and the two drivers will be starting at the back anyway as the team has opted to change power unit parts on both cars. 

Can Perez, something of a Baku specialist, spring a surprise for Cadillac?

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images