Baku City Circuit in profile
Last Updated: 24/05/23 1:45pm
Mixing the old and the new, the Baku City Circuit has played host to some of F1's most thrilling races since its 2016 debut.
Although the race ran under the European GP title for its first race, it morphed into the more fitting Azerbaijan GP thereafter and in 2017 delivered the race of the year as Daniel Ricciardo won from 10th on the grid and Sebastian Vettel drove into Lewis Hamilton.
If truth be told, few people in the F1 fraternity knew much about Baku or Azerbaijan itself before the inaugural Grand Prix.
Track length - 6.003km
Number of laps - 51
Traversing the boundaries of Europe and Asia, the former Soviet state has close political ties to Europe and in 2015 staged athletics' inaugural European Games. Its football team also competes in UEFA-sanctioned competitions.
Baku's F1 race track runs around the city's streets, passing some famous landmarks, and at 3.7 miles is the second-longest on the calendar after Spa.
Its standout feature is undoubtedly the narrow section of track which runs past the fort walls of the Old City, a World Heritage Site.
The high speed, wide main straight encourages drivers to get a slipstream and make an overtake into Turn One. But as they battle, drivers must be wary of the barriers.
A quirk of the Baku track is that it isn't always easy to warm up the tyres - cold tyres make hard-to-handle Formula 1 cars, which leads to accidents, so race starts and restarts tend to be frantic.
In 2017, Ricciardo won a classic race which saw Vettel and Hamilton clash, plus a superb double overtake on the brake from Ricciardo himself. Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas pipped Lance Stroll to second place at the chequered flag.
More drama followed in 2018 as the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Ricciardo collided after a thrilling battle. Then, Bottas suffered a puncture from the lead.
In 2021, Verstappen also had a puncture when running in first place which led to a red flag due to his high-speed accident. Hamilton got the jump on Sergio Perez at the standing start restart, only to go deep as he forgot to turn off his 'brake magic', handing the win to the Mexican.
It's fair to say Baku is one of the most exciting tracks on the schedule and provides a very tough challenge for the drivers.
