Baku: a stellar lap from Leclerc brings Ferrari back on Pole Position!

The qualifying session that took place in Baku were oneswith a truly unexpected outcome: Charles Leclerc, after a nightmare start to the season (only 6 points in 3 races) took the pole position of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and he did so with a couple of tenths ahead of the two Red Bulls of Verstappen (2nd) and Perez (3rd) and even 8 tenths over his teammate Sainz (4th), literally annihilated here in Baku.

Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Here are the full results:


But let's dissert it step by step…

Weekend upset in its format: how realistic are the performance levels shown?

The weekend in Baku, technically speaking, has not yet begun. Yet, with only one day of activity on the track we already have the name of the poleman for Sunday's race: for those who missed it, the motivation is the adoption of a new format linked to the presence of the Sprint. As will happen in the other 5 Sprint rounds on the calendar, on Saturday will see only two sessions on the track:

  • A qualifying session called "Sprint Shootout", valid for determining the starting order of the Sprint;
  • The Sprint itself, held as usual over a distance of 100 km (one third of the race scheduled for Sunday);

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

In doing so, the drivers found themselves with only 60 minutes of free practice available before tackling qualifying (even less, if we consider the red flag triggered by Gasly's Alpine issue).
In this situation, it becomes extremely important for all the teams to join the track with an already optimal set-up (validated only at the simulator), otherwise it will be impossible to make any change during the weekend. It is therefore legitimate to wonder how much it was Ferrari who "guessed" the right set-up or Red Bull who failed in the same goal.

A bit in contrast with what we saw in the first rounds of the season, we feel like saying that the leap forward of the SF-23 is real, as confirmed by Leclerc himself on the microphones after qualifying.

“I'm happy with the lap, because it was really on the limit, and now we have another qualifying tomorrow morning, so we'll have to do the same thing again. This car is very good, there is progress and we have put the car in a window where it is perhaps more difficult to extract the potential"
Charles Leclerc

The progress mainly concerns the traction capabilities of the SF-23: since Baku is a circuit full of traction zones, being able to exploit the excellent power curve of the Ferrari Power Unit through an optimized aero-mechanical set-up has allowed the laptimes to be lowered by 1.2 s compared to last year's pole position, something never seen so far this year.

Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

On the other hand, it would be wrong to say that Red Bull made a mistake in the set-up choices on the two RB19s: it is true that Verstappen chose less loaded wings than Perez (and we know that when there is only one optimal set-up, there are no differences between teammates), but we are certainly not talking about diametrically opposed choices!

Between Ferrari and Red Bull, the most disappointed driver is certainly Sainz, who racks up a gap of even 8 tenths from his teammate…

“Today I struggled a lot already from free practice, I lacked the feeling with the car and I tried to regain my confidence, but every time I pushed I made a mistake. I didn't have a new set in Q3, while the ones in front of me did, and this increased the gap. But it's my fault"
Carlos Sainz

A large part of this gap (5 tenths) can be ascribed to the tortuous second sector, which also includes the infamous "Castle section": a sector that highlighted both Leclerc's trust in the SF-23 and Sainz's distrust of the same car.

Mercedes and Aston Martin, what happens? Hamilton and Alonso make up for their cars weaknesses

The qualifications of the other two top teams were marked by performances that were not up to par with their previous appearances: in the case of Aston Martin, however, part of the deficit can be explained by a problem with the DRS actuator, which in numerous laps didn't work - and it must be said that Baku isn't exactly the best circuit to have this kind of problem…

Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Despite this, Fernando Alonso managed to finish in sixth position, less than a tenth from Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes: just think that in his best lap (with the DRS not working) he reached a maximum speed of 325 km/h, when in previously with DRS opened he had been able to reach 334 km/h... Ultimately this is not a negative result, if we consider how much the lack of top speed of the Aston Martin AMR23 conflicts with the long straights of the Azeri circuit.

The qualifying for the Sprint on Saturday afternoon could give us a better idea of what the maximum potential of the AMR23 is on this type of circuit, but honestly we don't expect anything different from what we saw on Friday.

Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

It doesn't go better at Mercedes, as anticipated: Lewis Hamilton performed an excellent 5th place, but Russell is sensationally out of Q3, so on Sunday he will have to start from the 11th starting slot. It was curious that George was eliminated in Q2 by just 4 thousandths of a second by his teammate Hamilton: in short, with a slightly different result we wouldn't be talking about Lewis's great performance. It's really true that even thousandths of a thousandths make a difference in Formula 1...

McLaren in strong recovery, great performance by Williams. Bad day for Alfa Romeo and Haas

In conclusion, let's take a look at the rest of the standings: the performances of the two McLarens of Norris and Piastri immediately stand out, as well as the Alpha Tauri of Yuki Tsunoda. In this case, however, it is difficult to attribute the eighth place of the Japanese driver to his great qualification or to a strong link between the Baku track and the characteristics of his Alpha Tauri AT04, as his team-mate Nyck De Vries ended the session prematurely in Q1, crashing into the barriers in turn 3.

For McLaren, on the other hand, it is certainly an "organic" improvement, due to the many (and important) aerodynamic updates brought to Azerbaijan. We'll see if the two Woking cars manage to stay on top of the midfield in the race, or if the others - Alpine above all - will come back stronger.

The two Williams finished in P13 with Albon and P15 with Sargeant, two good results if you consider that they put their designated rivals Alfa Romeo and Haas behind them. The two Ferrari-powered teams continue to disappoint expectations, despite a high-level Power Unit that could have easily dragged Bottas, Zhou, Magnussen (actually stopped by a breakdown) and Hulkenberg higher than we have seen.

What to expect from Saturday in Baku?

The format, as mentioned, will give us a "rerun" of Friday afternoon qualifying: it will be interesting to see what differences there will be in the performance levels of each team. Equally true is that in Baku the unexpected is always around the corner: the 17 laps of the Sprint and the 51 laps of the race will have a decidedly greater importance than the responses that we'll have from on the Azerbaijani Saturday morning.

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