Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Scorching speeds in the Land of FireScorching speeds in the Land of Fire

Welcome to the City of Winds

We've said goodbye to the trucks and motorhomes and headed out for the final flyaway third of the season, beginning with a trip to Baku, for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. When Baku arrived on the calendar in 2016, it reset expectations for street races, combining the low grip and unyielding barriers common to the genre with the sort of low downforce and high speeds previously reserved for tracks like Monza or Hockenheim.

It's produced dramatic, often chaotic racing, and has become the template for the street circuits that have followed in Jeddah and Las Vegas. When it was announced in 2014, the Land of Fire seemed an unusual choice for a Grand Prix venue, and the proposed track layout raised any eyebrows that weren't already raised – but it's become a race of real character in a relatively short amount of time.

For us, a strong run of form came to a grinding halt at Monza, last time out, with neither driver scoring – but Baku has traditionally been a stronger circuit for us (the scene of our team's maiden podium) and presents an opportunity to hit back immediately. This is also true for Jak Crawford, who didn't have a lot of luck in Italy and consequently dropped from second to fourth in the F2 standings. With just three events and six races remaining, he needs a strong weekend in Azerbaijan.

For exclusive insight and all you need to know about the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, plus a must-read interview with CEO and Team Principal Andy Cowell, keep scrolling.

TRACK INSIGHTS

Baku City CircuitBaku City Circuit

Baku has the longest full-throttle time, and it's very important to maximise straight line speed.

Felipe Drugovich – Test & Reserve Driver

Toggle below to highlight parts of the track.

Sectors
Turns
DRS

Circuit length (km)
6.003
Number of corners
20
Race distance (km)
306.049

NEED TO KNOW: AZERBAIJAN GP

The essential Baku travel guide with Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Mastering Baku

The magic of racing in Baku

Strategy insights from Baku

Ultimate Azerbaijan Grand Prix facts

Last time out in Baku

The essential Baku travel guide with Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Since Azerbaijan first appeared on the F1 calendar, it's become one of the more popular destinations for tourists from the F1 heartlands seeking a race experience a little further afield – and Baku itself probably isn't what first-time visitors expect.

Much of the imagery of the race is built up around the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Old City, most notably the 12th Century Maiden Tower and 15th Century Palace of the Shirvanshahs but walking around the streets immediately adjacent to the track, the impression is more like being in… Paris. Petrochemical wealth led to wide, pedestrianised boulevards linking parks, squares, and boutique shopping arcades which, during race week, turn into an illuminated café culture after the track action has finished.

The track is also bordered by the Caspian Sea. The sea – which, in reality, is the world's largest lake – has a sequence of beach clubs and harbours close to the circuit, from which all sorts of boat trips and dinner cruises set sail – though Baku is known as the City of Winds, with a cooler northern wind (Khazri) and warmer southern wind (Gilavar) alternating but blowing constantly. They create headaches for race engineers, but make Baku a very popular destination for windsurfing, flyboarding and parasailing.

Slightly further afield it's a city of modern architecture, with the Zaha Hadid-designed Heydar Aliyev Centre and the famous Flame Towers, which riff on Azerbaijan's nickname, The Land of Fire.

That nickname, like much of the wealth in the region, is derived from the natural gas sources close to Baku, best seen 20km to the north of the city at Yanar Dag – which translates as 'Burning Mountain', where gas seeps through the sandstone and flames perpetually burn at a protected historical and cultural site, linked with the ancient Zoroastrian religion.

Leave the city in the other direction and a couple of hours down the Caspian Coast, you'll get to Gobustan National Park, famed for… mud volcanoes. These aren't actual volcanoes, but rather calderas of mud, forced to the surface via a mix of gas pressure and tectonic activity. If you've ever wanted to visit an alien planet, this is the place to go in the meantime. The park is also famed for its petroglyphs, which in some places date back 15,000 years.

Mastering Baku

The Baku City Circuit is quirky, with the primary quirk being 2.2km long and approached with the right foot firmly planted. The main straight – which isn't really straight – is the longest full-throttle section of track in F1, out-dragging the Spa section from La Source to Les Combes by around 200m. It's a tricky proposition for car setup.

Tricky because it's very different to the rest of the circuit. Main straight aside, Baku is very much in the mould of the modern street circuit. It has low grip and a lot of low-speed, 90-degree corners and, at least while Singapore's Marina Bay is in its shortened form, the most gear changes of any F1 lap. Teams would like to be piling on the downforce for the other 4km of circuit, but the potential for time lost on the straight forces them to run a low-drag car. Perhaps not the ultra-low drag of Monza, but well below average.

The other big issue around Baku is braking performance. It's one of the toughest circuits for the brakes, with a sequence of heavy stops around much of the lap. The natural desire with this is build a car with plenty of brake cooling – but once again the issue is that long straight: running maximum brake cooling works for the rest of the lap – but the brakes will get very, very cold on the straight, which isn't ideal for a car that's hitting the brakes at 355kph, trying to stop for the tight turn one. As with everything in Baku, getting this compromise right requires careful thought.

The magic of racing in Baku

Of all the city races on the F1 calendar, Azerbaijan feels like the most 'citified', circling the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Baku Citadel, home of the Maiden Tower and Palace of the Shirvanshahs, after flashing down streets of apartment blocks and before running parallel to the Caspian Sea corniche.

As with many street circuits, opportunities to construct grandstands are limited, so the bulk of the seats are on the main straight, primarily built on the seaward side, facing the city, and with the fanzones located behind. At most circuits, those closest to the first corner would be most likely to see overtaking moves, but such is the length of the straight in Baku, any of the grandstands between Turn 20 and Turn One get to see plenty of action, meaning the primary attractions of the final/first Absheron grandstands are that it is opposite the pits and, should the weather turn, is the only grandstand with a roof.

Neftchilar Avenue, the road that forms the main straight, is a wide boulevard, and at one point the track runs along it in both directions. Thus, the grandstands further along get a good view of the Turn Five and Six left-right flick, and the more substantial corner at Turn Seven. This aside, there aren't many views of the interior section of track, with the best locations tending to be private balconies. There is, however, a grandstand at the kink between Turns 10 and 12. While this is quite a low-speed section of track, it does provide a stunning backdrop of the Citadel, for anyone who's chasing the perfect F1 picture.

Finally, what's loosely described as the main straight stretches all the way from Turn 16 to Turn One, with Turn 16 being the last real corner. It has grandstands inside and outside, and is a decent place to get a good appreciation of F1 cars under heavy braking as they come down the hill. It's not usually an overtaking zone, but it's definitely an action zone during Qualifying, with cars trying to cling to track limits while seeking a good exit. It's here you discover who's looked after their tyres better through the first 15 corners and can still count on enough grip to stay within the track limits.

Strategy insights from Baku

Last year's Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a one-stop race, contested almost exclusively on the Medium (C4) and Hard (C3) tyres. The preferred strategy for most of the field (14 of 20) was a Medium start, followed by an early pitstop, with the stops beginning on lap 10, and going as deep as lap 17 of the 51-lap race. Eight of the 10 cars to score points ran this sort of Medium-Hard strategy.

The alternative was a reverse Hard-Medium race. This was a little more interesting. While the Medium tyre suffered with thermal degradation (and some graining), the Hard looked capable of doing the whole race. The two cars to score points on the Hard-Medium strategy were Lando Norris, who stopped on lap 37, and Alex Albon, who went on lap 31. Other cars ran longer, hanging out in the hope of a cheap stop under a Safety Car or VSC. Once a driver takes this approach, they have little choice but to commit, and thus Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon all completed virtually the full race distance, making their stops one, or two laps before the chequered flag. These, and Max Verstappen (attempting fastest lap at the end) were the only cars to use the Soft (C5).

This is interesting because Pirelli has dropped down a compound for 2025, bringing its softest tyres to Baku, with the C6 making its first appearance since Canada. This will likely move the race into two-stop territory – or at least make that an attractive alternative.

Ultimate Azerbaijan Grand Prix facts

1 | Lance and Fernando will create a little piece of F1 history if they both start the race this year, as they will become the first pair of teammates ever to reach 600 combined starts.

2 | Lance became the second-youngest podium finisher of all time when he was third in the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix at age 18 years 239 days. Lance, Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli are the only drivers ever to have finished on the podium as teenagers.

3 | Fernando's best-ever Baku result was in his debut year for Aston Martin in 2023 (4th place). He has scored points in his last six starts at this track.

4 | Sebastian Vettel's second place in 2021 was our first F1 podium finish.

5 | Sunday's race will see F1 complete its 1,000th lap in Grand Prix racing this year.

6 | The Azerbaijan Grand Prix has been held seven times. The inaugural race was held in 2017, and the country skipped 2020 due to restrictions as a result of the global pandemic. Every race has been held at the Baku City Circuit.

7 | The circuit made its debut in 2016, when it hosted the Grand Prix of Europe. The title, as an honorific, goes back over a century. As an individual, named Grand Prix, it's been running, off and on, since 1983, held at Brands Hatch, the Nürburgring, Donington, Jerez, Valencia, and finally, Baku.

8 | The Azerbaijan Grand Prix has the peculiar distinction of taking place below sea level. At its lowest point, on the start-finish straight, it is 24.7m below sea level – or 2.253km below the calendar high-point at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico.

9 | Baku City Circuit features the narrowest section of track in F1 – just 7.6m wide at Turn Eight, where it turns up the hill into the Old City.

Last time out in Baku

Baku has been a happy place for Aston Martin Aramco. We've never failed to score good points here. 2021 was a torrid weekend for Lance, with a crash in Qualifying relegating him to the back of the field. A good recovery drive had him up to P4 when a tyre failure pitched him into the barriers at high speed. Sebastian Vettel, however, had a storming drive to the podium. He started P11 and steadily made ground all through the race, running a longer first stint than his rivals. It paid dividends after the Safety Car brought the field back together after Lance's crash, when with younger rubber, he was able to pick off cars ahead. He looked set for a solid fourth-place finish until the red flag came out when Max Verstappen, in the lead, had the same crash as Lance. The race was restarted for one flying lap. Lewis Hamilton locked up at the first corner, Seb avoided the Mercedes and collected P2, and our first podium.

2022 was less dramatic, but not in itself lacking in drama. Lance was unlucky to be eliminated in Q1. He ran wide on his first attempt, then couldn't get another go as the session was red-flagged in the final minute. Seb, however, made it through to Q3 and started in P9. Lance's race ended early, with the car called in to retire with extreme vibrations, but Seb went on to finish P6, having made a very early pitstop to take advantage of a VSC.

2023 had the novelty of a Sprint race in Baku, and so our first double points finish was actually a quadruple points weekend. The Sprint format in 2023 had race Qualifying on Friday, followed by Saturday given over in its entirety to the Sprint format, thus we had Fernando and Lance both making it through to Q3 on Friday, then finishing sixth and eighth, respectively, in the Sprint, before going back into race mode to finish fourth and seventh on Sunday. Unsurprisingly, it's our best points haul to date in Baku.

Last year was a little more sedate. Having bounced around the calendar, the race moved to a September date. Lance didn't have a lot of luck, recording his third DNF in four outings for us, when braking problems caused him to stop with six laps remaining. Fernando, however, came home P6.

Session Times

FP1

Fri19SEP

09:30-10:30 BST

FP2

Fri19SEP

13:00-14:00 BST

FP3

Sat20SEP

09:30-10:30 BST

Quali

Sat20SEP

13:00-14:00 BST

Race

Sun21SEP

12:00 BST

Talking Points

Entering F1's final third

Aston Martin Aramco CEO and Team Principal Andy Cowell discusses Enrico Cardile's arrival, explains why the sport should be receptive to change if it's for the benefit of fans, and looks forward to racing in Baku.

2025 Azerbaijan Talking Points list image

I / AM

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