There have been no repeat winners of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but Charles Leclerc is really trying to mount his case.
Leclerc collected his third Baku P1 start when he pipped Max Verstappen to pole for Sunday’s race. He’s the only driver to score more than one pole at the tricky high-speed track, though he’s yet to convert that into an unprecedented second victory.
Could this be the year?
Surely not after everything we’ve seen this season — not after Red Bull Racing’s almost embarrassing displays of dominance or Ferrari’s unreliability-prone campaigning.
But it is fair to say there are significant unknowns heading into both the sprint and the race.
The sole practice session was compromised by a lengthy red flag, and the weather and track conditions in the evening race sessions will completely different to what they were on Friday morning. It means we don’t have the usual read on race performance to form a forecast.
Is it blind hope or a genuine chance?
LECLERC TAKES THREE IN A ROW IN BAKU — BUT IS A WIN ON THE CARDS?
Leclerc’s pole wasn’t just a break in the monotony of non-stop Red Bull Racing poles this season, it was also a much-needed boost of morale.
That had been a key objective for Ferrari ahead of this weekend, which began with news it would lose highly rated racing director Laurent Mekies to AlphaTauri by next year and with rumours that even Leclerc himself was seeking an exit to Mercedes.
What some had hoped would be a quick top-up on last year’s competitive step forward was beginning to look like a major rebuild.
But sometimes one good result is all you need. Certainly Leclerc thinks as much.
“I think the whole team needed it,” he said. “It’s part of our job — I think any team in Formula 1, you need to deal with rumours and pressure — but it’s obviously sometimes a bit more difficult to perform under those circumstances, and we did really well. I think it’s good for the whole team.”
And it’s not just a boost for morale. Team principal Frédéric Vasseur has insisted all season so far that the SF-23 is a fundamentally quick car but with too narrow a set-up window.
True, the car has always been quick in qualifying, but the fact it got one over the RB19 rather than just looked vaguely threatening is a step forward — and one Leclerc hopes will translate into at least somewhat more competitive race pace, even if he isn’t willing to buy into the idea the car could be an instant winner.
“One thing for sure is that I think we did a step forward in Australia,” he said. “We need to see obviously tomorrow for the sprint race and the race on Sunday, as I think we are a little bit more on the back foot there.
“I expect the gain to be more in the race, but we were also much further behind in the race. But I think it’s mostly set-up.”
Verstappen, however, isn’t expecting much of a challenge come Sunday.
“I’m not really [surprised] by Charles,” he said. “If you look at all the qualifyings, I think in general it has been quite close at the first three rounds.
“We have a really good race car but it has never been super dominant over a single lap.
“At the end of the day it’s also not really bad for us. We know we have a quick race car.”
Ferrari might be buoyant, but there’s no sign of consternation at Red Bull Racing.
McLAREN MAKES A STEP — BUT SHOOTS FOOT
McLaren’s major upgrade — in summary a new floor, the most aerodynamically sensitive part of the car — combined with some circuit-specific low-downforce parts worked wonders around the super-fast Baku circuit, getting both drivers into Q3 for the first time this season.
That it came at the expense of George Russell in the factory Mercedes team, whose engines power the papaya cars, underlines the significance of the achievement.
Lando Norris will line up seventh on Sunday ahead of Oscar Piastri in 10th — though it was so nearly ninth, the Aussie having set an identical time to Lance Stroll ahead of him but losing the position because he set his time later than the Canadian.
It’s a result that’s exceeded the ground expectations of the weekend so far.
“I think to get into Q3 is a really positive day,” Oscar Piastri told Sky Sports. “It’s nice to start the weekend off well.
“I think the car’s been working well. I think it’s been probably a better day than what we expected. We’ll keep it rolling for morrow and see what we can do to make it even quicker.”
But it isn’t all roses for McLaren.
Though Norris was pleased with his first Q3 appearance of the year, he was disappointed with the way the team managed his session.
His gripe stems from the team burning through a set of soft tyres among the red flags in Q1. It not only left him with only one new set for Q3, but it leaves him with no new sets for the sprint shootout on Saturday.
Under the rules adopted for the sprint shootout, each driver is allowed to use only one set of tyres in each segment, and the set has to be new — and in SQ3, which decides the top 10, it must be a set of new softs.
In other words, if Norris makes the top 10 again in tomorrow’s qualifying, he won’t be able to participate.
“We as a team didn’t do the best job with making the correct decisions of what to do,” he said. “We just didn’t maximise today. At the same time we’re not going to be able to maximise tomorrow.”
But progress is progress for McLaren after a dire start to the year in Bahrain, and a decent weekend result still looks like it’s on the cards.
ALPINE’S TERRIBLE DAY
It would’ve been hard for Pierre Gasly to imagine his day getting any worse as he jumped out of his burning Alpine on the side of the track and watched marshals pump extinguisher foam into the engine airbox.
Little did he know what Azerbaijan had in store for him.
Just hours later and barely minutes into qualifying, his freshly rebuilt car was in the wall, this time thanks to a mistake of his own doing, and his day was finished. He’ll start 19th on the grid in Sunday’s grand prix.
It was a humbling experience for the Frenchman, who’s still trying to find his feet at his new team.
“Obviously very disappointed,” Gasly said. “It was a pretty tough day, a pretty tough Friday overall for us as a team.
“FP1 didn’t go as planned with an hydraulic issue in the first 20 minutes, and the boys did an incredible job to repair the car literally a minute before the qualifying, and then after it was tricky with so few laps.
“Coming into Turn 3, I didn’t brake so late but didn’t brake hard enough,” he said. “I thought I could make the corner and unfortunately just understeered and put it into the wall.
“Pretty frustrating, but thanks to the new format at least we can put this behind us for tomorrow and refresh with the sprint tomorrow, but a pretty frustrating day.”
But if it was frustrating for him, imagine what it was like for the mechanics, who had just repaired his car, complete with a gearbox and power unit change, only to see it smeared across the barrier shortly afterwards — including the bevy of new performance parts brought to the A523 this weekend.
And things get worse, if you can believe it. Gasly completed just seven laps in practice and six in qualifying. Teammate Esteban Ocon was restricted to eight laps in practice before being parked as a precaution lest his car also set itself alight, and in qualifying he was knocked out 12th.
Baku is a confidence track, and those lap counts — never mind the crashes and failures — do no inspire confidence.
FIRST TAKE ON SPRINT FORMAT TWEAKS
Having just one hour of practice is designed to inject considerable jeopardy into the race weekend, and it’s hard to say the effects of the change aren’t being felt, particularly given Gasly’s fiery failure reduced the session by almost 15 minutes.
No driver bar perhaps Charles Leclerc sounded genuinely confident in what they had learnt in the limited running time before qualifying, and the unpredictable grid results bear that out.
Further, there was a string of reliability issues that hampered several team. Kevin Magnussen was out early with a technical problem. Both Aston Martin drivers suffered DRS issues throughout qualifying. McLaren got its tyre strategy wrong thinking on the fly. Gasly and Nyck de Vries made unnecessary errors under pressure.
In short, there was a lot going on — which is exactly the point of the format.
But the real moment of analysis comes on Saturday with the sprint shootout and sprint race. How the drivers tackle this stand-alone day will make or break the format changes.
