Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM.....

[coinlocket$]

Keep in mind that Redull got a big upgrade this weekend.
If the go back near the top of the grid it will be thanks to the new floor of the car they had.

This is the 1st attempt the team did to fix the issues of the car after the GP of China.

For sure RBR looks more competitive in Baku but as said timer will decrease by a lot for the dirty track.

We need to see tomorrow if upgrades actually works

[tokeweed]

^  I think Sergio Perez will have another decent performance in this circuit again...  Not only because of the upgrade but Perez is pretty good in this track.  I think most of his podium finishes are in Baku.    He's at 4.00 to finish in the podium.  Prolly there's some value there as he could be above the expectations compared to the implied odds.  Dunno tho...  FP3 where everybody starts pushing it is really not giving signs that Red Bull could be ahead here.

Here are the results for FP3...

2024 F1 Azerbaijan GP FP3 Results

1   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m42.514s
2   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m42.527s
3   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m42.737s
4   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m42.749s
5   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m42.862s
6   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m42.968s
7   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m43.024s
8   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m43.194s
9   Franco Colapinto   ARG   Williams Racing   1m43.238s
10   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m43.301s
11   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m43.474s
12   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Visa Cash App RB F1 Team   1m43.503s
13   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m43.571s
14   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   Visa Cash App RB F1 Team   1m43.870s
15   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m43.876s
16   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m44.164s
17   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m44.187s
18   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m44.869s
19   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   No Time Set
20   Oliver Bearman   GBR   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   No Time Set

[Distraction]

We have left the qualifying session behind. Leclerc took the pole position, congrats to him!    It is a well-deserved pole truthfully. He was giving the signal from the Free Practice already. You must be knowing how successful he has been in Azerbaijan in the recent years when it comes to capturing pole also. Now the thing I'm hoping not to see is that Ferrari messes up with strategies. But I must admit they were really good in Monza.

It was a nightmare session for Norris... He couldn't even see further than Q1. What do you think about his climb? Will he reach podium anyway you think? Truthfully I doubt it for now considering it is a street race. 

[coinlocket$]

Leclerc is on another level on this track.
I think this is his 4th poleposition in 5 years on this track

As predicted was a fight between Ferrari e and Mclaren for the pole position but with a closer RBR.

Norris got unluck but it will have a chance tomorrow nothing is lost.

[retreat]

We have left the qualifying session behind. Leclerc took the pole position, congrats to him!    It is a well-deserved pole truthfully. He was giving the signal from the Free Practice already. You must be knowing how successful he has been in Azerbaijan in the recent years when it comes to capturing pole also. Now the thing I'm hoping not to see is that Ferrari messes up with strategies. But I must admit they were really good in Monza.

It was a nightmare session for Norris... He couldn't even see further than Q1. What do you think about his climb? Will he reach podium anyway you think? Truthfully I doubt it for now considering it is a street race. 

Charles getting the pole position is his hard work, we can see how he was quite stressed in some corners during the practice session and even he said that it was quite impossible for him, but in the end he got the pole position which was not expected. Now we just have to wait and see how Ferrari's strategy is and how Sainz can at least hold off the people behind him.

And for Norris, he only got P17 which makes his chance to get the podium very small. But at least he might be able to get P10, maybe.

[coinlocket$]

Oh good timers for Colapinto and Bearman too.
Was a good call from Haas and Williams.

I think I never seen what happened do Albion on the last 2 minutes of Q3.

He left the pit box with an item attached on his car, stopped in the mid of the pit box exit, removed the item an restarted.

For sure he will take a penalty, a fine for sure and almost certainly positions in the grid.

[Velvet78]

Huge congratulations to Leclerc on his work! It is nice to see some Ferrari domination this weekend.    Piastri is between two Ferraris before the start line tomorrow. The start is going to be really an interesting one considering the grid behind as well. I must also admit Colapinto did a nice work there. Not only by qualifying for Q3 but also by overtaking Albon. He seems really promising.

The biggest surprise was of course Norris. The biggest disappointment I must say. He stated they were worse than Ferrari but I'm sure he didn't mention this.    I give him near 0 chance to win the race tomorrow. Even for podium he doesn't have a big chance...

[tokeweed]

I'm out of the house and I'm wondering what happened to the race...  The last time I looked at the leaders, it was Piastri on pole, followed by Leclerc, then Perez at the third spot and a possible podium finish.  What happened to Perez?  Next I'm seeing is he has a DNF beside his name.  Lololol.  Too much tequila?

Anyway congrats to Piastri and McLaren supporters.  Must be feeling good knowing you guys are possibly winning it this year.  Next year is gonna be interesting.  Prolly a classic Ferrari vs McLaren clash for the driver's and constructor's championship?

[retreat]

Piastri won the race and he showed a real champion mentality. He really defended Charles behind him and didn't give Charles any space to pass him. He has potential and I'm starting to like him. And for Charles, he started from pole position, and finished P2, it's not a bad result but it's not good either. And for the incident involving Sainz and Perez, it was an incident that could have been avoided if Sainz was less aggressive, but I understand how Sainz and Perez were both eager to get on the podium, but unfortunately they crashed, and P3 went to Russell.

[Distraction]

I'm out of the house and I'm wondering what happened to the race...  The last time I looked at the leaders, it was Piastri on pole, followed by Leclerc, then Perez at the third spot and a possible podium finish.  What happened to Perez?  Next I'm seeing is he has a DNF beside his name.  Lololol.  Too much tequila?

Anyway congrats to Piastri and McLaren supporters.  Must be feeling good knowing you guys are possibly winning it this year.  Next year is gonna be interesting.  Prolly a classic Ferrari vs McLaren clash for the driver's and constructor's championship?

Leclerc led the race for a very long time on mediums and had a huge gap with Piastri. However after pitting and preferring hards, he started to lose pace while Piastri was gaining on him. It ended up with Piastri's overtaking him.

After some time, Leclerc started to improve his speed and started the chase for taking the lead back. But such an amazing defending it was by Piastri! He definitely deserved to win the race. Congrats to him a lot on that! 

When it comes to Perez, he had a huge accident with Sainz in the last laps. Truthfully I believe it was Perez's fault after watching the replay from an angle above the cars.

Here is the video of the related accident: https://youtu.be/7ynDOY1PR74?si=Uw43kEA88hVZnfMN&t=399

Full results:

[alegotardo]

I'm out of the house and I'm wondering what happened to the race...  The last time I looked at the leaders, it was Piastri on pole, followed by Leclerc, then Perez at the third spot and a possible podium finish.  What happened to Perez?  Next I'm seeing is he has a DNF beside his name.  Lololol.  Too much tequila?

Anyway congrats to Piastri and McLaren supporters.  Must be feeling good knowing you guys are possibly winning it this year.  Next year is gonna be interesting.  Prolly a classic Ferrari vs McLaren clash for the driver's and constructor's championship?

So... it was an exciting race and I don't even know where to start, but I'll try...

The start was clean, with no collisions between drivers and Sergio Pérez, who started in fourth position, managed to take third place.

Lewis Hamilton, who started from the pits, managed to gain positions in the first laps and soon took 15th place, but he didn't "shine".

George Russell, who started in fifth place and lost it to Max Verstappen in the first minutes of the race, had a terrible performance and after a pit stop he ended up falling to 12th place, but he later got his revenge on Max, overtook the Dutchman and took sixth place in the race.

The best moment of the race was in an intense battle on the 20th lap in which Oscar Piastri used his wing and managed to overtake pole position holder Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque even tried to regain the lead on the same lap but was unsuccessful.

In the final straight, Charles Leclerc tried to overtake Oscar Piastri several times, but the Australian defended himself well and secured victory in the Azerbaijan GP.

[barbara44]

Mclaren will most probably win the title this year without a doubt. Perez was out, Max finished under Lando Norris and Piastri won the whole thing, goes to show how great Mclaren has become. I think Sainz was the one who was wrong there, Perez was going on his direct line, didn't move to right and didn't move to left. Sure Perez "could" have moved to left to avoid that clash, but why would he, he wasn't going against Sainz or forcing him, as long as Sainz drove on a straight lien like Perez did, neither would have clashed.

Sainz decided to go a bit left, no idea why, where Perez was, and that is why they collided and after 50 laps of racing, they ended up losing for no reason at all. I think it's clear that we are going to see this changing, Ferrari is better than Red Bull too, I don't know what Red Bull is planning, but they are definitely in big trouble.

[coinlocket$]

A race with Baku with almost no overtakes.
What F1 has become.

Anyway, Mclaren is clearly the best car and Leclecr tried his best but they are too strong, keep in mind also they have the "dynamic" wing

What a accident between Sainz and Perez, idk if anyone has fault there or it is just a race accident.

[karabiber]

The Azerbaijan GP was a race Leclerc lost by his own hand. He basically left the door open and let Piastri through. Leclerc is too soft in some races to be fair and this was one of those races. I'm also really curious to know the secret behind how the McLaren car is so competitive on every track, somehow.

For McLaren, which doesn't even have a factory team, which didn't start the season that well, this development is tremendous. Especially the videos about wing flexibility show that they have found a very good gap. If the FIA approves them, it's not much to say, but they will probably take some action. Piastri seems to have raced a mini drs.

[Velvet78]

Leclerc is doing his best. I get that. However I was really annoyed with one thing about him in this race. While he was trying to overtake Piastri back in the start straight, he always made the exact same attempt. He tried to overtake him from the outside every time... If only he dived inside of Piastri then maybe we were going to talk about a different result now. 

Perez and Sainz were hard to understand. Was it really necessary to risk it that much? I know both were trying to finish on podium and maybe even overtake Leclerc as well. But that was one of the silliest accidents I have seen in F1.

[Volgastallion]

What a strange race we got. I dont know if anyone is gonna agree with me but it feels like a tense race without passing so much until the crash of Perez and Sainz, poor both drivers, seems like a race crash and its not a clear fault of anyone.

About cosntrcutor championship like barbara said above me, seems like Mcclaren have it in their hands if nothing chance, but i also feels like if Mercedes hasnt be punished with disqualification a few races back and with a little bit more of luck we can enjoy a 4 band race for the constructor championship between RB, Ferrari, MC and Mercedes.

[coinlocket$]

Leclec got cold tires, was pretty normal situation when he got overtook by Piastri with flexible wings and hot tires.

About Perez and Sainz I think also was a race crash, they are both guilty.

Papaya team can only lose not the constructor championship.

Here you can see the flex wing https://x.com/brakeboosted/status/1835322050946146804

And for sure is an advantage, you seen the top speed of Mclaren,right?

[tokeweed]

A race with Baku with almost no overtakes.
What F1 has become.

Anyway, Mclaren is clearly the best car and Leclecr tried his best but they are too strong, keep in mind also they have the "dynamic" wing

What a accident between Sainz and Perez, idk if anyone has fault there or it is just a race accident.

As it's a street circuit, these things are mostly expected and will prolly be booked as a 'race incident'.  Dunno tho...  Not sure what the FIA is saying as I haven't been reading much this weekend.  And don't even know what went on at the EPL.  The mood is it's all UFC for me.  Lol.  F1 and the EPL kinda went in the back seat.

But yeah, McLaren has the best car and Ferrari seems like it's catching up from what I'm seeing.  This gonna be goood!  And a nice preparation for next season.

[retreat]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/did-mclarens-mini-drs-rear-wing-trick-help-piastri-keep-leclerc-at-bay-in-baku/10654884/

I just read this interesting post where it was said that how Piastri won the race with a "mini DRS" designed by their engineers. Especially at the Baku circuit yesterday which has a fairly long track, it is thought to help McLaren gain an advantage over other teams. Actually this is the result of the flexi wings where when experiencing high pressure it lifts a little and creates a "mini DRS" effect. And until now the FIA ​​has not given any explanation regarding this.

I can only say that F1 engineers are very smart to be able to come up with something like this.

[Distraction]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/did-mclarens-mini-drs-rear-wing-trick-help-piastri-keep-leclerc-at-bay-in-baku/10654884/

I just read this interesting post where it was said that how Piastri won the race with a "mini DRS" designed by their engineers. Especially at the Baku circuit yesterday which has a fairly long track, it is thought to help McLaren gain an advantage over other teams. Actually this is the result of the flexi wings where when experiencing high pressure it lifts a little and creates a "mini DRS" effect. And until now the FIA ​​has not given any explanation regarding this.

I can only say that F1 engineers are very smart to be able to come up with something like this.

It is true, yeah. Here there is an image describing the situation clearly.



This looks interesting. Maybe FIA might really find McLaren guilty for using a possibly illegal wing design. I hope it isn't illegal though. Otherwise they might lose some pace. 

If it is legal then surely the other top teams would also be keen on copying it right away. We will see what happens in the coming days. We are in a new race week and the new place is Singapore. It looks like it might rain at the weekend. I already see another failure by Red Bull.