Feature
What the teams said – Friday in Azerbaijan
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Ferrari
Leclerc looked quick in the early stages of FP1, topping the timing sheets on the mediums. But he then locked up and ran straight on into the barriers, bringing out the red flags and ending his session early. Sainz had a tidier time of it, although he kissed the walls late on after the chequered flag fell. The Monegasque driver had a difficult start to FP2, complaining about his steering, which he thought was still bent out of shape. A short spell in the garage later, he wound up setting his flying run much later than the rest and did enough to grab P1 – but it wasn’t by much, with the margins very tight out there.
FP2: Leclerc leads Perez and Hamilton during second practice in Azerbaijan
Charles Leclerc - FP1: 1:46.608, P9; FP2: 1:43.484, P1
"The pace was there today, but between the incident in FP1 and a problem we had in FP2 with the steering, we didn’t complete too many laps. It will be important for us to have a smooth FP3 and get ready to extract the most out of qualifying tomorrow."
Carlos Sainz - FP1: 1:46.173, P5; FP2: 1:43.950, P4
"We had the usual challenging Friday here in Baku, with very little grip to begin with and then finding a different and evolving track as the day went by. We were almost four to five seconds slower compared to last year and it was complicated to get a proper read on the car balance. However, we were able to progress from the first to the second session and I'm confident we can keep it up and have a good qualifying tomorrow."
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Red Bull
Red Bull had a strong opening to their weekend, with Verstappen topping the session and Perez finishing third. That form continued into FP2, with Perez this time the quicker of the duo as Verstappen complained about the visibility caused by the sun dipping lower in the sky. That Red Bull looks a lot happier on track here, and Perez certainly seems more confident than he has of late – all of which bodes very well heading into tomorrow.
Max Verstappen – FP1: 1:45.546, P1; FP2: 1:44.029, P6
“Overall, I think it has been a good day. We learnt quite a bit and now it is just about tidying up the things that we tried, but I think so far we have been more competitive this weekend so that’s positive. There has been a lot of work in the background and it has been positive. For sure FP2 was a bit more difficult for me. I had some issues with my visor, when the sun comes down in between the buildings you have some glaring moments and I struggled with the visibility. The track is also quite slippery and has a lot of 90 degree corners so I just need to get the balance together a bit more, however I’m quite confident that we can be more competitive.”
Sergio Perez - FP1: 1:45.922, P3; FP2: 1:43.490, P2
“It was definitely a good solid day, I think there is a good base there for us to build from. We made a good step from FP1 to FP2 and now we just need to make sure we are able to progress from here, then we can definitely be in the mix for tomorrow. We are heading in the right direction with the car, we are finding we can put it together a little bit better, there is still a long way to go but it is promising what we have seen so far this weekend. I think anything can happen in qualifying, we just need to keep our head down and deliver a great couple of laps and one great lap in Q3!”
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Mercedes
Running the older spec floor, Hamilton looked confident from the off and spent much of the session on top of the leaderboard, before he was pipped late on by old foe Verstappen. Russell was slightly further back, then missed the start of FP2 thanks to a precautionary PU change. He missed a decent chunk of the second session before being called back to the pits with an issue a few minutes before the chequered flag fell. That was the bad news – the good news was that Hamilton looked equally quick in FP2, signalling that the older floor seems to be delivering the goods right now.
Lewis Hamilton – FP1: 1:45.859, P2; FP2: 1:43.550, P3
“Today was a really good day. I enjoyed it from the start as the car felt strong from the first laps on track. We made some positive incremental steps on the set-up. There was nothing we had to come back on, and we continued to build throughout. Pace wise, we didn’t complete a huge number of laps on our long run in FP2. We will have to do some comparisons tonight therefore to see where our relative speed is. Our usual competitors looked strong, but I think we are there or thereabouts. That is encouraging and was our hope coming into this weekend. We will stay cautious and vigilant though. We will work hard tonight to try and find more gains and see what we can do in qualifying tomorrow.”
George Russell - FP1: 1:46.516, P8; FP2: 1:44.536, P9
“Today wasn’t the smoothest Friday we’ve ever had. Unfortunately, we lost a little bit of running time with a precautionary power unit change ahead of FP2. Once we were out on track, I wasn’t completely happy with the balance of the car. I was struggling to get the tyres in the right window and was lacking a little confidence. I’ll work hard overnight to improve on that, step my game up for tomorrow and close the gap. The good news is that Lewis was looking very quick out there. It encourages us that the car is strong, and we can be competitive this weekend. It looks very close between several teams, with Ferrari in particular looking strong. If we can make improvements overnight though we can aim to be in the mix for qualifying and the race on Sunday.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“Lewis had two decent sessions and finished the day happy with the car. His pace also looked sensible although we know the areas we've got to work on. Overall, we’re pleased with how his weekend has started. As has been the case in recent races, it looks very tight at the front in terms of single lap, so we’ll be working hard overnight to find every bit of lap time. In comparison to Lewis, George had a more challenging day. He wasn’t very happy with the balance of the car in FP1, so we spent that session trying to improve it. Shortly after FP1 finished, we spotted an issue with the power unit that led us to take the cautious approach of swapping it out for FP2. That unfortunately cost him 25 minutes of valuable track time and whilst we got to run both tyres, the programme was compromised. We’ll be aiming to recover some of the lost ground with George tomorrow in FP3.”
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McLaren
Norris and Piastri set their soft shod times before the last red flag and thus their efforts were not fully representative, given the track had yet to fully evolve in FP1. In the early evening session, Norris found himself baulked by Gasly on his hot lap and opted not to go again, hence his lowly finishing position. Piastri’s lap time was more representative but again he went early, so there seems to be more to come from the papaya cars heading into tomorrow.
Lando Norris – FP1: 1:46.027, P4; FP2: 1:45.156, P17
“Today was a reasonable day. I found it a little difficult to get comfortable on track, and we’ve got some work to do on car balance overall, but we’ll work hard tonight to put us in the best place for tomorrow. There’s lots of potential so let’s see what we can do.”
Oscar Piastri - FP1: 1:46.282, P6; FP2: 1:43.983, P5
“That’s Friday done in Baku. It was a pretty solid day, and the pace seemed good. There’s some polishing and tidying-up to do, but the potential is certainly there, which I’m happy with. Hopefully, we can find a little bit more in the car tomorrow and get into a good position in qualifying. The track is still evolving and getting a lot quicker, so it’s still a little bit difficult to know exactly what our pace is like, but it seems to be going in the right direction.”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal
“Leaving aside the usual red flags and yellow flags, which are pretty typical here in Baku, it’s been a smooth and productive day of practice running. We’ve had a good look at the tyres, made progress on our set-up and we’ve acquired valuable information. Once again, the top four teams seem to be grouped within a tenth or two, which is going to make for a very interesting weekend. We’ll work hard tonight to maximise our package and see where that leaves us for qualifying tomorrow and Sunday’s race.”
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Aston Martin
It was a steady opening session for Aston Martin, with Alonso finishing in the top 10 in an encouraging start for the team. Stroll did likewise in FP2, the Canadian much happier after some set-up tweaks, having complained in FP1 on the radio that the AMR24 “is not a car.” All in all they look in the mix for the top 10, although it might be tricky to get both cars into Q3 tomorrow such is the competitive nature of the midfield.
Fernando Alonso – FP1: 1:46.452, P7; FP2: 1:44.683, P12
“We’ve picked up useful data across the two Free Practice sessions which we’ll analyse with the engineers tonight. We tried a few different things today so we’ll study that overnight and work out the best route to take with car setup ahead of qualifying.”
Lance Stroll - FP1: 1:47.184, P13; FP2: 1:44.093, P7
“Fernando and I ran some floor comparison tests today in FP1. We’ll analyse the data from that tonight with the engineers and assess the best direction going forwards. We’re pushing hard to extract performance from the AMR24 and we’ll see what we can do overnight to set ourselves up for qualifying tomorrow.”
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Haas
Bearman had a good start to his first full weekend as a Haas driver, finishing a couple of tenths ahead of his vastly more experienced team mate and crucially keeping his car in one piece. He is a bit of a Baku specialist, having done very well here last year in F2. He carried that impressive form into the second session, although Hulkenberg just pipped him on their hot laps. Both wound up in the top 10, which bodes well heading into tomorrow’s qualifying session.
Nico Hulkenberg - FP1: 1:47.184, P12; FP2: 1:44.475, P8
“The day hasn’t been bad, not perfect either, but it is a practice day. It was a day spent getting to grips with this very interesting, intense circuit again. It was super dusty; this morning grip conditions were very poor so there was huge track evolution throughout the day, and staying on top of the circuit evolution was key today. I didn’t have the cleanest run on the low-fuel softs which is okay, we just need to learn from it, understand our package and understand the tyres. It’s been a positive day and a good base that we can compete from this weekend.”
Oliver Bearman – FP1: 1:46.973, P11; FP2: 1:44.547, P10
“It was nice to do a full Friday, building step-by-step without having to rush anything. I was quite happy with how the day went and how the day finished-up, and I was confident in the car which is important on a track like this. Tomorrow, my goal is to be proud of my performance; that’s going to be done by improving and finishing at a level I know I’m capable of, and having a clean performance.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal
“Today has been a really good day. We started FP1 reasonably strong but we had a few tweaks to make, which we did. We accounted for big track evolution, which is normal for here, so the feedback on the engineering side was very good. In terms of both low- and high-fuel performance, we didn’t maximize everything, but some good lessons learned and a clear direction of what we need to achieve so it was a decent Friday. Ollie has done a fantastic job again in both sessions, his learning rate is fast so I’m very pleased.”
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RB
Ricciardo has fond memories of this track and seemed pleased to be back here for the first time since 2022 as he started his weekend in the top 10. The Australian fell down the order in FP2 though, as his team mate climbed towards the top 10. With their rivals Haas looking strong, RB have some work to do to ensure they out-qualify the American outfit. But Tsunoda is something of a Baku specialist, having never qualified outside the top-eight here in three previous visits, and the team do have some upgrades here which they’ll be hoping helps them in their quest to score points for the first time since Spa.
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Daniel Ricciardo - FP1: 1:46.687, P10; FP2: 1:45.056, P16
“Today was mixed. FP1 went well, it was nice to get back on this circuit, it’s been a couple of years since I last drove here. I felt like I got into the flow of it relatively well and felt good. We made some changes for FP2 to see if we could improve grip, as it’s very slippery here. However, we didn’t feel the conclusion of this enhanced things. We know what worked this morning and was in a good position, so if we use our FP1 set up and try to get a little bit more out of it, we’ll be fighting towards the front of the midfield with a good lap in qualifying tomorrow. Like any street circuit, if you can put the lap together you can go very well. We’ll try our best to make it work.”
Yuki Tsunoda - FP1: 1:47.708, P15; FP2: 1:44.645, P11
“It started pretty tricky, but we made good progress between FP1 and FP2, just not quite enough to be in the top of the midfield. It’s difficult on this kind of track to have nice balance everywhere, but we managed to improve session by session, we just need to work on some fine tuning and fix the bouncing I experienced in FP2. We have a couple of ideas already on how we can improve before FP3 tomorrow, to turn it around for a good qualifying.”
Alan Permane, Racing Director
“A decent day for us although still plenty of pace to find, as the car balance was not quite perfect. It meant that neither driver was fully happy. We carried out our floor comparison with Daniel running the latest spec in FPI and both cars running it in FP2 and we will continue analysing the data this evening. The initial impression is that it’s a decent step in the right direction. As usual at this street circuit, the track evolves throughout the day and that involves adjusting the balance to follow the improvement. Tonight, we will look carefully at our level of downforce and we might adjust that for FP3 and possibly into qualifying.”
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Williams
Colapinto didn’t have the dream start for Williams, the Argentinian crashing in FP1. He got a little snap through Turn 14, enough to send him sideways into the barriers and bring out the red flags. That meant a rebuild for Williams between sessions, but they did manage to get their rookie out for the start of FP2. Albon had a busy but uneventful day, doing the donkey work for the team as they continue to gather data on their latest upgrade package that was only bolted on in Zandvoort.
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Alex Albon - FP1: 1:47.955, P17; FP2: 1:44.737, P13
“It’s been a tricky day. We haven’t been very happy with the way the car has been behaving so we’ll make some changes and, if we make the right calls, I think we’ll make a good step forward. The track is super sensitive with low grip and the tyres are overheating a lot. Pirelli have set the pressures really high so you can’t afford to slide the car or it damages the tyre really quickly so you really need to look after those tyres. It’s not fun but it’s the same for everyone. At the minute we don’t quite have top 10 pace but there is definitely a lot of things we can look at tonight and then I don’t think we’ll be too bad.”
Franco Colapinto - FP1: 1:47.901, P16; FP2: 1:44.749, P14
“The crash was a rookie mistake as I was still getting to grips with the track, and everything was new. Taking that away, we had a good second session. The heroes of the day are the mechanics. They did an amazing job to repair my car in time for FP2. I’m proud of the team for all their efforts. I was really happy to be able to get another session under my belt to help build my confidence up. It was a small mistake but here it can cost you a lot. The car is in a good position and I’m feeling more comfortable lap after lap. I need to keep working to understand how the overheating and degradation works. This is still a process as it’s only my second race and it’s a street track. It’s a tough start but I think we’re doing a good job.”
Sven Smeets, Sporting Director
“In FP1 both drivers weren’t very happy with the car. There was no grip and the tyres were never operating in the right window. Franco made a mistake in his second push lap on the soft, hit the wall and had to retire from the rest of FP1. The team did a brilliant job to get his car ready for FP2 and he was able to run almost the whole session. Also, on Alex’s side the team was very busy, changing many things on the car in order to find a better balance and performance. The hard work has paid off as the drivers were happier with the behaviour of the car in FP2 but there is still more work to do tonight, going through all the data and finding performance if we want to be fighting for points on Sunday.”
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Kick Sauber
Bottas and Zhou had a quiet opening to their weekend, with plenty of laps completed and few incidents to note from FP1. The same continued in FP2, although Bottas did need the run off areas a couple of times after locking up on quick laps. He was the pick of the duo despite those mistakes, finishing a few places and a few tenths ahead of his team mate.
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Valtteri Bottas - FP1: 1:47.640, P14; FP2: 1:44.785, P15
"It was quite difficult out there in FP1. We had quite limited running due to the red flags, and the grip conditions started from a very low level, which caused us some initial struggles. We had to make changes to the setup and downforce levels for the car to start feeling better in the second practice session. While we're heading in the right direction now, we're still lacking overall grip and a bit of balance, which we’ll need to work on overnight. Our focus will be on finding that extra performance and improving the car's behaviour before qualifying tomorrow."
Zhou Guanyu - FP1: 1:49.052, P19; FP2: 1:45.947, P20
"Today wasn’t an easy day with quite a mix of feelings, but we managed to gather valuable data. The grip was significantly lower than last year, but by the end of FP2, we managed to improve the balance a bit. There’s still plenty of work ahead, but I’m sure tomorrow is going to be another tight qualifying, especially as the track keeps evolving. As a team, we'll analyse the data, keep working on it and try to improve every single little detail along the way."
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Alpine
Ocon didn’t have the ideal start to his weekend, the Frenchman radioing to say he had lost power before coasting back to the pits without setting a time. He didn’t make it back out either, the team opting for a full power unit change. He did come out at the start of FP2 but joined his team mate down the order, with Alpine seeming to struggle for pure pace in Baku.
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Esteban Ocon - FP1: No time set, P20; FP2: 1:45.810, P19
“We had some issues in Free Practice 1 and we had to catch up in Free Practice 2 this afternoon, as we missed some valuable running time. As a result, it was a very busy second session for us and we managed to do a lot of work during that hour on track. We have items to be working on this evening and tomorrow to bring more performance to the car. We know what to work on with the engineers now to get ready for, hopefully, a better day tomorrow.”
Pierre Gasly - FP1: 1:48.712, P18; FP2: 1:45.391, P18
“That was not the smoothest Friday Practice Day from our side. We did not have a clean day with both Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2 compromised for various reasons. We have a lot of work to do to turn things around in order to be better placed for the rest of the weekend. We will all put the hard work in and aim to find some improvements.”
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Pirelli
Simone Berra, Chief Engineer
“The two hours of practice were rather difficult to interpret, especially because of the track condition. We had already seen after taking track surface measurements on Wednesday that the grip level was lower than last year’s and also differed from one section of track to another and that was confirmed today once the cars started running. Lap times dropped very quickly, but they are still a way off those recorded in last year’s one and only free practice session, when Baku hosted the first Sprint format weekend of 2023, but also slower than those from earlier simulations. Why? It’s impossible to give a definitive answer but this may have been down to the fact the asphalt was not treated as it had been last year, as could be seen by the amount of dirt kicked up by the cars.
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“We noticed some graining on the tyres over a long run, but not to a particularly high degree and we believe that, as the track rubbers in, its incidence will decrease. In terms of strategy, this is usually a race run in two parts, featuring the medium and the hard tyres, while the soft is clearly a qualifying tyre. Therefore, that explains why eight of the 10 teams kept both their sets of hards, not so much because they are considering a two-stop, but to cover any eventual neutralisation and thus make the most of the tyre that’s the most competitive over a long distance.”
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