Official 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

[Sandpit Steve]

Thanks to @Piginapoke for always doing these F1 race threads, he’s on holiday this week and I volunteered to help out.
Can a mod please add the usual poll to this thread, TIA

After an unusual four-week spring break, thanks to the cancellation of the Chinese event for Covid-related reasons, we arrive in Baku for the fourth race of the season, the first to feature a revised Sprint format. Expect many teams to bring extensive updates to their cars.

There will be a single practice session on Friday morning, followed in the afternoon by the qualifying session to decide the grid for Sunday’s race.

Saturday will be Sprint Day, with qualifying for the Sprint in the morning, and the Sprint itself in the afternoon. The finishing order of the Sprint is for Championship points (8 points for the winner, down to a single point for 8th), and no longer sets the grid for the main race on Sunday. The Sprint Qualifying will be a changed format, but the final details have yet to be published. Watch this space.

Edit Tuesday 16:25GMT. Sprint qualifying format confirmed. Rumours of one-lap shootouts being unfounded - although they do use that terminology to mean something different!
“The shootout will be a shorter session than traditional qualifying, with SQ1 set to run for 12 minutes, SQ2 for 10 minutes and SQ3 for eight minutes, and replaces the previous FP2 seen on the Saturday morning of Sprint weekends. New tyres are mandatory for each phase, with mediums for SQ1 and SQ2, and softs for SQ3.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.formula...

Friday 28th April
Practice Session 13:30-14:30 (09:30-10:30 GMT, 10:30-11:30 UK)
Race Qualifying 17:00-18:00 (13:00-14:00 GMT, 14:00-15:00 UK)

Saturday 29th April
Sprint Qualifying 13:30-14:30 (09:30-10:30 GMT, 10:30-11:30 UK)
Sprint Race 17:30 (13:30 GMT, 14:30 UK)

Sunday 30th April
Race (51 laps) 15:00 (11:00 GMT, 12:00 UK)

Channel4 UK Highlights:
Saturday 19:50
Sunday 17:30

Circuit Map:
https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2023/Azerbaijan...

Full track schedule:
https://www.bakucitycircuit.com/en/schedule

2022 Race Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xCYKQXaK7A

Live timing for all sessions available here:
https://www.formula1.com/en/f1-live.html

Lap times, PU component use, technical reports and Stewards' decisions for the weekend will appear here:
https://www.fia.com/documents/championships/fia-fo...

Pirelli will be bringing the softest tyre compounds to this race, so we have the C3 Hard, C4 Medium and C5 Soft compounds of dry tyres available. We probably won’t see the Intermediates and Wets, as the forecast is for dry weather during the sessions.
Sunday looks somewhat windy, although not as bad as earlier forecasts suggested.
https://press.pirelli.com/2023-tyre-compound-choic...
https://www.bbc.com/weather/587084

Current Championship standings for Drivers:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/driv...

Current Championship standings for Constructors:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/team...

F2 will be supporting this race, follow along in the PH Support Races Thread
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Edited by Sandpit Steve on Tuesday 25th April 17:24

[Still Mulling]

Nice one, thanks Steve. (And have a good holiday, PiaP!)

I'm looking forward to this. I have no sound basis for this, but a gut feeling that it could be an entertaining weekend of racing.

[Mark-C]

Thanks Steve - the UK timings are particularly useful ... fits well with home\work schedule for me to be watching or listening to all sessions and race.

Interested to see what Mercedes bring and whether it makes any difference. Once the poll is up I'll vote with my heart but ard to see past a Verstappen win ubless something odd happens.

Ferrari had a nightmare here last year ...

[Deesee]

Love this Race..

The original F1 sports washing (as revealed in the Panama Papers), long forgotten after the antics of our favourite sport..

Not in any order..

The Hamilton Vettel love affair that was interrupted by Lewis brake testing Seb under a SC, then getting side swapped in a F1 road rage resulting in a 10 second penalty..

Red Bull vs Red Bull (donkey gate)

CLC pole lap (I am stupid)

Max's tyre failure then Hamilton Brake Magic.

Changing the race date so Hulk could not defend at Le Mans.

Loose drainage covers! Safety Car restart while the Marshall's were on the track.

Checo (Force India x2 ) / Stroll (Williams ) / Gasly (AT) podiums.

2023.. what could possibly go woing... FOM/FIA, Lets have a Sprint Race

[garythesign]

Thanks Steve for taking over from PIAP this week.

PIAP. Hope you enjoy your time away.

Four weeks seems like a massive break.

Welcome back F1……cue lots of moaning as ever

[Still Mulling]

garythesign said:

……cue lots of moaning as ever

You recognise the irony of this statement, right?

[HustleRussell]

Still afraid of this place and the potential for an aeroplane accident along the pit straight.

First trial of the new sprint format which I think will be an improvement.

Teams including Mclaren and Alpine are bringing more significant upgrade packages than others.

The teams having only one practice session to wrestle with the unique tyre and brake temperature challenges and wind characteristics of the circuit will cause upset. Dare I dream that it is Red Bull who struggles with this most notably? They are generally slightly slow to build tyre temperature and had braking struggles in Australia...

With only an hour of practice going into Grand Prix qualifying, we are probably going to get a mixed up grid. Any Friday reliability problems will play directly into the Grand Prix.

[Scrump]

Sandpit Steve said:

Thanks to @Piginapoke for always doing these F1 race threads, he’s on holiday this week and I volunteered to help out.
Can a mod please add the usual poll to this thread, TIA

Thanks for the thread.
Unfortunately the mods cannot add a poll, this thread needed to be created as a poll. Not to worry I am sure we can manage without one.

[Sandpit Steve]

Scrump said:

Sandpit Steve said:

Thanks to @Piginapoke for always doing these F1 race threads, he’s on holiday this week and I volunteered to help out.
Can a mod please add the usual poll to this thread, TIA

Thanks for the thread.
Unfortunately the mods cannot add a poll, this thread needed to be created as a poll. Not to worry I am sure we can manage without one.

Ah bugger. I only had the options of discussion or wiki, for the thread type. I think the poll type might be restricted, to stop everyone doing it.

I’ll vote for Alonso, just to be different. I think this one might favour the slippery Aston Martin.

[mk1coopers]

Have a good Holiday PiaP, thanks for stepping up SS

High speeds, walls, limited practice, what could go wrong....

sadly we are probably on for another RB win, unless MB turn up with some sort of spectacular W14B, AM hit the ground running, or Ferrari don't do their normal keystone cops routine.

[Diderot]

Thanks SS for standing in.

I’m hoping the Williams will be quite strong this weekend and get a point or two.

[Still Mulling]

Aston previously on the podium here, and Alonso an experienced race manager, including when it's a melée...could this be his race?

[HustleRussell]

Sandpit Steve said:

I’ll vote for Alonso, just to be different. I think this one might favour the slippery Aston Martin.

I thought the Aston was relatively draggy

[Deesee]

HustleRussell said:

Sandpit Steve said:

I’ll vote for Alonso, just to be different. I think this one might favour the slippery Aston Martin.

I thought the Aston was relatively draggy

massive drag..

[Deesee]

PP..

Well done @sandpitsteve

I’ve started these threads before and got hell before.

GRrrr….

Virtual pints (or next time your in London/Imola, real ones) Grazie Regazzi..

[PhilAsia]

Deesee said:

The Hamilton Vettel love affair that was interrupted by Lewis brake testing Seb under a SC, then getting side swapped in a F1 road rage resulting in a 10 second penalty..

Your recall is incorrect. Lewis did not brake test Seb.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/fia-data-shows-hamilton-didnt-brake-test-vettel-in-baku-clash-5000960/5000960/

".......FIA data shows Hamilton didn't brake-test Vettel in Baku clash
The Formula 1 stewards at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix found no evidence in telemetry data of Lewis Hamilton either brake-testing or lifting off unexpectedly in his clash with Sebastian Vettel
Jonathan Noble
By:
Jonathan Noble
Co-author:
Lawrence Barretto
Jun 26, 2017, 2:37 AM

FIA data shows Hamilton didn't brake-test Vettel in Baku clash
Although Vettel is adamant that he was brake-tested on the exit of Turn 15 as leader Hamilton prepared for the Baku race's second safety-car restart, the FIA's analysis of data from Hamilton's car showed no proof of that.

Vettel then drew alongside Hamilton and made further contact with the Mercedes, for which he was given a 10-second stop/go penalty for "potentially dangerous" driving.

The FIA investigation, conducted during the race, showed that Hamilton had behaved exactly the same in that area of the track at both the controversial restart and the incident-free one before.

With a long run up between the following Turn 16 and the safety car line, Hamilton had to back off to ensure that he did not break the rules by overtaking the safety car before he was allowed.

Vettel remains adamant that Hamilton did not behave in the right way and that he was brake-tested.

"We know the leader dictates the pace but we were exiting the corner," said Vettel.

"He was accelerating then he braked so much that I was braking as soon as I saw, but I couldn't stop in time and ran into the back of him.

"I just think that wasn't necessary."

The FIA's analysis of the second contact concluded that Vettel had turned into Hamilton's Mercedes.

The stewards' statement explained: "The stewards examined video evidence which showed that car #5 drove alongside and then steered into car #44.

"The stewards decide this manoeuvre was deemed potentially dangerous."

Speaking about that moment, Vettel said: "I drove alongside, then we had a little contact but I drove alongside mostly to raise my hand.

"I didn't give him a finger or anything, I just wanted to tell him - because I can't literally talk to him - that that was not right."

Race ban danger

Vettel was also given three penalty points for the incident with Hamilton - which means he now has a total of nine for the past 12 months...."

[Deesee]

PhilAsia said:

Yeh he did

& stop using chat ap(what)p or what ever it is.

Edit..

Stewards and RD, always right eh

[PhilAsia]

Thanks SS for the thread. Great job!

Enjoy the ride PiaP...

Another 2023 wafty win for the Maximillion Rocket...

Not keen on sprints but will suspend my disillusion until this new styling has reached its promised zenith...

[PhilAsia]

Deesee said:

& stop using chat ap(what)p or what ever it is.

What does that mean when it's at home?

[PhilAsia]

Deesee said:

PhilAsia said:

Yeh he did

& stop using chat ap(what)p or what ever it is.

Edit..

Stewards and RD, always right eh

They are when you are wrong...