2018 Azerbaijan Grand PrixFormula 1

[SVT Cobra GT]

After another fantastic race at the Chinese Grand Prix, Formula 1 is back in the saddle at the Baku City Circuit in, well, Baku. The talk will be of the 3 way fight for the championships now Red Bull have won a race before Mercedes. As we all know F1 never stands still and nothing is ever consistent. Will this be the race that Mercedes wipe the floor with everyone? Or will Ferrari win this time around? Baku last year was probably the most dramatic race, what will it have for us this season?

Baku City Circuit
First Grand Prix​

2017
​

Number
of Laps​

51
​

Circuit Length​

6.003KM
​

Race Distance​

306.049KM
​

Lap
Record​

1:43.441 by Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari - 2017)
​

2017 Podium ​

1: Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull - Tag Heuer)
2: Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
3: Lance Stroll (Williams - Mercedes)
​

Session times at:
[URL]http://whenisf1on.com/[/URL]​

 

[Dennisch]

Maybe this year we can see a Lewis brain fart to mix things up!

 

[baldgye]

Maybe this year we can see a Lewis brain fart to mix things up!

Be nice if his first win of the season came at a track he's never won

 

[TheElbows]

I enjoy this track and all its oddities, just wish they'd run it at night - could be gorgeous.

 

[BrainsBush]

Here we go. Already forgot that Vettel bumped into Hamilton after his 'brake test' exactly one year ago. Maybe Max watched too much to them as an example haha Enjoy the Baku GP weekend.

Edit: Max is the first driver to "crash" and has to stop his P1 training. drivers fault or a technical failure? We'll find out later

 

[LumpiestFish]

Odd accident for Verstappen.

 

[Pezzarinho17]

drivers fault or a technical failure? We'll find out later

Probably that dreaded power surge that spun him in Bahrain, the one caused by the throttle pedal...

 

[BrainsBush]

Odd accident for Verstappen.

It looks like a simple drivers fault but after watching some replays with analist commentary it seems a gearbox failure and the car downshifted to 1 just before the corner. After he had to stop his car he could not start it again despite the restart procedure help from the pitwall. Strange?

 

[GT6champNK_69]

Max, Max, Max. OMG, what an amateur. He literally send it in the barrier lol!. It's definitely the time now for Horner, and Helmet Marko to do the serious talk with Verstappen, he simply can't continue to do this, It's starting to be embarrassing lol.

Any how:tup:, It's great to be back in Baku, Aserbajdsjan. Love this Circuit. And there is a good chance for rain on Sunday, wow, wow, wow, that could be very interesting, and going to be very challenging for the drivers, because of all those white stripes on the tarmac, they become very slippery when wet.

I hope that Haas will have a strong weekend, with points..
Hope to see Ricciardo on the podium again, and with a surprise maybe.

 

[BrainsBush]

Funny to see they use the Halo as a HUD

 

[BrainsBush]

You go when you have to go. Stoffel and Max went to the same restaurant yesterday.

PS Not officialy confirmed yet. It seems that the RedBull of Max had gearbox issues and that is the reason for the strange 'break-out' behavior of the rear. Also Hulk and Carlos were facing engine/gearbox issues. So not confirmed yet and also not clear if these three are correlated to each other.

Ferrari did the longer stints in FP1?

 

[Jimlaad43]

Ferrari are over 2 seconds off the pace.

The good news just keeps on coming!

 

[Tajima]

Yet another error right after a dive bombing in previous race. Max just pause your F1 career and go back simracing but not hotlapping, learn to RACE in a sanctioned (not by Charlie Whithing) series and come back when you are READY. Now you looks just plain stupid.

 

[PeterJB]

Prepare for Channel 4 to show Vettel hitting Hamilton last year every two minutes in case one person in the country may have forgotten about it.

 

[BrainsBush]

So far in FP2 Max is the only driver who did not miss turn 1. Progress!


Edit: women and children first #33 is on track

 

[DesertPenguin]

Wow Max is on a tight rope here. Any little mistake after China and everyone comes out saying he should stop racing. Wow...

 

[BrainsBush]

Wow Max is on a tight rope here. Any little mistake after China and everyone comes out saying he should stop racing. Wow...

Even F1/FIA....about 10 drivers miss turn one (which is just testing and pushing) but if our Maxie....Well nevermind

Funny to read that a lot of people already have their opinion ready and even judge without knowing the cause/facts etc.

RedBull especially Daniel doing very good!

 

[Dennisch]

What is going on with van Doorne? 1,5 seconds behind Alonso.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

What is going on with van Doorne? 1,5 seconds behind Alonso.

It's FP1 they may just be testing stuff, it's not something to read into. Also they have been using FP1 to try slipstream runs out and this time Stoffel was the front man for Alonso, they're trying to figure how their straight line speed deficit compared to others but mainly Renault powered teams doing better than them.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Wow Max is on a tight rope here. Any little mistake after China and everyone comes out saying he should stop racing. Wow...

Everybody picks on Belgians, it's effectively why they're there

Funny to read that a lot of people already have their opinion ready and even judge without knowing the cause/facts etc.

On the internet? I don't believe you!

 

[baldgye]

Wow Max is on a tight rope here. Any little mistake after China and everyone comes out saying he should stop racing. Wow...

It's an easy bandwagon to jump on for the uninformed. I can't imagine how these people would have reacted to Roman's early seasons pre race ban

 

[Jimlaad43]

HasMaldonadoCrashedToday has a new victim

http://crashstappen.com/

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

It's an easy bandwagon to jump on for the uninformed. I can't imagine how these people would have reacted to Roman's early seasons pre race ban

Probably the same way many did then. It was quite a call and obviously influenced by a close championship battle in the season.

 

[Peter.]

At least the worst of his incidents were before that ban rather than after. It is safe to say he learned his lesson somewhat.

That said, while I have been really critical of Max lately, crashing in practice isn't a valid reason to burn him at the stake. Putting it into the wall on a green street curcuit doesnt make you a menacr. Wait til Sunday at least.

 

[baldgye]

Probably the same way many did then. It was quite a call and obviously influenced by a close championship battle in the season.

The difference between the two though, was that Roman constantly made errors that cost other drivers races/positions and then wiped out two championship contenders by literally driving one off the road before turn 1. Max literally only made contact with another driver once, the rest of the time he's just ruining his own weekends/races.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

The difference between the two though, was that Roman constantly made errors that cost other drivers races/positions and then wiped out two championship contenders by literally driving one off the road before turn 1. Max literally only made contact with another driver once, the rest of the time he's just ruining his own weekends/races.

Like? His first season full time in the sport and he had some issues as a rookie but performed well and showed why he deserved to be in the sport. Only halfway through said season was he banned for a single race due to again as I said, having a first corner collision that caused the wreck of two of the title contenders. Grosjean wasn't trying to drive Lewis off the road, in fact he got a much better start, thought he had the space to cover him off and misjudged. If that was warrant of a race ban, then there are many cases that were, and more so because they were seasoned drivers.

Max hasn't mad contact with a driver only once, in fact he's done it on several occasions. If you'd like we could go over his collisions for the first couple of seasons in the sport. Like Monaco 2015 for example. I'm not one to jump on a popular flow of thought, but Verstappen has shown to be a very skilled and fast driver that can throw caution to the wind, and it costs him at times and others. To compare an incident that happened in a driver's rookie year to Verstappen in his 4th season...is quite leap. Especially when the punishment handed down seemed more to do about the show that F1 is, and less about actual collision.

 

[baldgye]

Like? His first season full time in the sport and he had some issues as a rookie but performed well and showed why he deserved to be in the sport. Only halfway through said season was he banned for a single race due to again as I said, having a first corner collision that caused the wreck of two of the title contenders. Grosjean wasn't trying to drive Lewis off the road, in fact he got a much better start, thought he had the space to cover him off and misjudged. If that was warrant of a race ban, then there are many cases that were, and more so because they were seasoned drivers.

Max hasn't mad contact with a driver only once, in fact he's done it on several occasions. If you'd like we could go over his collisions for the first couple of seasons in the sport. Like Monaco 2015 for example. I'm not one to jump on a popular flow of thought, but Verstappen has shown to be a very skilled and fast driver that can throw caution to the wind, and it costs him at times and others. To compare an incident that happened in a driver's rookie year to Verstappen in his 4th season...is quite leap. Especially when the punishment handed down seemed more to do about the show that F1 is, and less about actual collision.

I'm working insane hours at the moment so I don't have time to do a full breakdown, but he was constantly crashing into drivers, race after race. While Max has made mistakes he has never caused the kind of carnage that Roman did.



It didn't just affect the show, it also very nearly cost Alonso part of his hand.

Max had made mistakes, everyone who is operating at his level does and it's hard to really understand the kind of mental and physical pressure that F1 drivers contend with. At the moment Max is causing himself more issues than anyone else. That wasn't the case with Roman and the race ban was there to calm him down and to keep people safe. I don't think Max is actually seriously endangering anyone else with his driving.

 

[PeterJB]

That jump-start was obscene.

 

[Dennisch]

It was a great pile up though.

 

[BrainsBush]

From (Dutch) F1 program:

Tomorrow we will get answers about that extra flappy paddle behind Vettels wheel. They say it is possibly to regulate exhaust airflow to create more downforce? Which is not allowed.

Expected 40km/h head wind gusts during the race on the long straight and from the side which makeit very difficult for the drivers. We'll see

And Max has a new shorter throttle pedal