FORMULA 1
Baku City Circuit: The Gold Standard of Modern Street Circuit
As street circuits become the new norm in Formula 1, Baku City Circuit stands out above the rest in producing great races.
Street circuit, what was once a Monte Carlo specialty is now a staple in the modern Formula 1 calendar. When Monaco entered the Formula 1 calendar in 1929, people wanted an answer to the question whether the world’s fastest machines can race on a narrow city street. Over 70 years since hosting its first race, the Monaco Grand Prix has become and still is the crown jewel of F1. It is the greatest spectacle in all of motorsports, the one that produces unbelievable moments and highlights across history. For the drivers, the Monaco Grand Prix is the one that they want to win at least once in their careers. But as modern F1 technology leads to bigger cars, street circuits like Monaco might not be fitting for the modern F1 cars.
In 2022, two new street circuits will be hosting F1 grands prix. The controversial one in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and the one around Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida. Vietnam was supposed to host another street circuit grand prix in the 2021 calendar but it was cancelled due to political reasons. That makes it six Grade 1 street circuits that are ready to host F1 races. Since Liberty Media — the organizer of F1 — wants to have more races around the world, street circuits have been their go-to solution in terms of making new tracks for F1 cars. Some are good but most of them are absolutely hated by the F1 community. But one track rises among them, and this track has to be the standard for all street circuits that are being planned or built. Liberty Media should watch and learn from the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix wrapped up with Sergio Perez standing on the top step of the podium for the first time as a Red Bull Racing driver in only his sixth race with the team. Fan favorite Sebastian Vettel earned his first podium in the Aston Martin suit, and Pierre Gasly of the Alpha Tauri completed the podium trio. The 2021 Azerbaijan GP podium was the first podium of the season not featuring Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, or even the 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. To add more to the mind-blowing facts of this race, Sergio Perez is the fifth different driver to have won in Baku in their fifth race in the circuit’s history, joining the likes of Nico Rosberg (2016), Daniel Ricciardo (2017), Hamilton (2018), and Bottas (2019), which means no drivers have ever achieved a repeat win in Baku.
The Baku City Circuit in their six years of existence always produces unbelievable moments that put the audience on the edge of their seats. In 2018, Verstappen and Ricciardo crashed into each other down the main straight, and Bottas lost the lead and possibly a win after a late puncture to his tire. In 2017, Lance Stroll grabbed his first podium with the Williams Racing Team, and also their last podium as a team to date. In the most recent nail-biting moments that happened in Baku, Verstappen lost the lead and the win to a tire failure, and Hamilton forgot that he had a “magic” button on the steering wheel and caused him to lock-up in the turn-1 section where he could’ve gotten the lead from Perez. With the great racing and dramatic moments produced so far since its inception, the Baku City Circuit has accomplished what other street circuits tried to achieve and replicate from Monaco. What makes Baku City Circuit unique, aparts from those events during the races, is the layout of the track itself.
Baku City Circuit is one of the longest circuits in the modern F1 calendar, with 6.003 kilometers in length across the heart of Azerbaijan’s capital city, that features 20 corners and one of the longest start-to-finish straight in F1 which stretches for 2.2 kilometers from turn-20 to turn-1. Baku combines the high speed of a racing track like Monza, especially in sector one and three, and the narrow and zero-mistake feels of driving in a city mainly in sector two, as seen in the incredibly tight Castle section in turn-8. This makes setting up the car to be tricky. The car has to be able to reduce drag to handle the high speed corners in sector three and the main straight, but also be able to generate enough downforce in sector two where there are slow speed corners and be nimble to not lose too much speed in the corner, especially with the elevation changes. This is contrary to setting up a car for Monaco, where it has to have as much downforce as possible for it to pick up speed in the slow speed corners and the few high speed sections in Monte Carlo.
Because it’s a city circuit, there are not many runoff areas in Baku. While the drivers drive at an average speed over 200 km/h and the top speed of more than 350 km/h, extra concentration is needed for the drivers to avoid heading into walls. But that doesn’t mean overtaking is impossible in Baku. In fact, Baku is one of the circuits that encourage drivers to do overtaking action. In the 2016 season, the European Grand Prix in Baku had 50% more overtakes than the season average. The tow from slipstream and Drag Reduction System (DRS) down the main straight play a big part for overtaking, like how Lewis Hamilton easily overtook Charles Leclerc in lap 2 of this year’s race to take the lead.
Hermann Tilke, the designer of this circuit summed up Baku City Circuit perfectly in his press conference at the first race, as he said, “Obviously street circuits present a number of challenges, in terms of circuit design, but we have been able to incorporate some unique features that will provide the teams and fans with fascinating racing.” Tilke also said that the track layout would create an incredible spectacle for the race fans at the track and the viewers at home. After five races, five different pole position sitters, five different drivers with the fastest laps, and five different winners in Baku, Tilke has proven to be right. Other street circuits that are being built should take Baku as an example because Baku always delivers.
Rafiandra Putra Andika is a writer, designer, video editor, photographer, content creator, or to sum up, a story-teller. He found his fond love for sports ever since a little kid, starts with Soccer, Formula 1, Basketball, and now focusing his talent on growing the exposure of American Football, especially in Indonesia. He pledged his loyalty to LeBron James, Tom Brady, and the New England Patriots.
You can follow him on Instagram: @rafiandra21 for his recent audiovisual works (photo, video, and podcast), and on Twitter with the same handle for his unfiltered thoughts and written pieces like this one.
