Ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Alpine driver Esteban Ocon completed a lap on a simulator around a virtual version of the city ring, located along the central streets of Baku, and spoke about the key features of this unique circuit.
Esteban Ocon: “Hello everyone! Today we are going to drive along the Azerbaijan highway, which is located in Baku. It is very interesting – let’s see what awaits us there.
We start with the last two “real” corners of the lap, and it is important to get out of the 16th well. An interesting fact: even during qualifying, we only turn on qualifying mode after the corners of the circuit where it goes left and then right (turns 18 and 19), even though we are driving at full speed here.
We are on the straight, but we still do not activate the qualifying mode and we do not do it later, where we also turn on DRS. We are not in a hurry to use the qualifying mode, because the lap is very long and we still have to fully charge the battery when we cross the start-finish line.
For the 1st bend we brake closer to the right curb, although I did that later than necessary – apparently because of the tailwind. The next landmark is the zebra crossing before the 2nd exit. There we brake, go through this 90 degree bend to the left, at the exit we stay as close as possible to the barriers and open the DRS at the right moment.
The most important thing before turn 3 is to choose the right braking point, it is about 100-110 meters before the turn, and it is also left and also 90 degrees. There is always a very strong wind blowing on this part of the track and we take turn 4 as close to the wall as possible.
In the 5th it is important not to go too far to the right and to pass it correctly, so that you can normally take the next right turn, from which you should get as close as possible to the left barrier.
60 meters before the 7th bend we brake, and there is no departure zone, and if you get into trouble you get stuck, and to get out of there you have to engage reverse gear. After 50 meters we slow down for the next part and also press as close to the wall as possible.
This is the narrowest part of the route, where the old fort is located. At the turn-off we first go right, then left, stay close to the barriers, brake before going down, and this is a rather tricky part. Many people there miss the top and then have to leave the track.
It is important to come out of turn 16 correctly, without going too far to the right, and then just finish the lap. In turn 18 the track goes to the left, in turn 19 it goes to the right and you have to avoid the wall, but try to stay as close to the left side of the track as possible, because there the influence of the wind is less.
We also have to remember that you cannot cross the access line to the pit lane, although at the end of the lap we kept to the left – so we drove along the Baku highway!
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
