Ferrari started this Formula 1 weekend at the 6.003-kilometre Baku City Circuit with a less-than-optimized setup and, overall, far from the ideal point. The car had very little grip on the front end, so much so that Charles Leclerc hit the wall in the first free practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The lack of rotation on entry then led to a degree of oversteer on exit. The wing they are using is the most standard version, which produces medium downforce and provides good balance to the SF-24. For the second free practice session, the Italian team made some changes to the car. The adjustments concerned the ride heights and front-end stiffness compared to the rear.
Overall, we saw a more representative balance. The front is now more precise and manages to hit the apex of the corner better, although still not perfectly. The rear has become lighter: initially, they sought a more rearward balance to reduce the load on the wing, but then they had to rethink the setup after the first practice session. The rear lightens especially on exit when the driver goes on the throttle. Overall, Ferrari manages to be competitive in the first sector.
This part of the track is likely where they arrive with the front end already in the correct operating window. So much so that Charles Leclerc reported that the front tires were cooked after just one flying lap. In the first sector, the Italian cars perform well also because they reach high speeds, a parameter they prioritized when building the setup. The weak point of the Ferrari remains the slow-speed sections, where they don’t have enough baseline grip. This issue can be partially addressed with setup adjustments, but there’s little margin, otherwise, handling in other parts of the track is compromised.
Red Bull, in terms of on-track drivability, seemed to have oversteer at mid-corner, where the rear lightens during the turning phase. This lack of stability penalizes Max Verstappen, who has not yet managed to find the rhythm in the medium-speed corners of the first and second sectors. We’ll see how they try to better balance the car for Saturday, and it will be interesting to see if the two axes of the car remain disconnected here as well. Sergio Perez performed better and seems more comfortable at one of his long-time favorite circuits.
As often happens on Fridays, Red Bull uses less aggressive engine mappings, so the Dutchman loses quite a bit in both the first and last sectors of the track. For him, a top speed of only 314 kilometers per hour, compared to Charles Leclerc’s 327 kilometers per hour and Lewis Hamilton’s 333 kilometers per hour. Remember that they are using a medium downforce wing, the same used at Silverstone, which therefore generates a bit more downforce compared to the average. They can afford a bit of extra drag, but not too much, as in recent events, both Ferrari and Mercedes have proven to be faster.
Red Bull has a setup construction more similar to McLaren, which, as we will see later, favors the generation of grip at different speeds. From the telemetry data, it is clear that Max Verstappen struggles to excel in many areas of the track. He performs well at turn 4 and in the braking zones of turns 15 and 16. The MCL38, on the other hand, proves to be very competitive in traction, as we will see later. On the main straights, the cars from the Brackley team dominate, thanks to their excellent top speeds.
The two Mercedes drivers performed their qualifying simulations at different times: Lewis Hamilton completed his first, then focused on race pace, while George Russell did a push lap right after the long run simulations. In both cases, a difficulty in warming up the front end emerged. Although the rear end does not present particular temperature problems, the real issue is keeping the rear in the right window while trying to transfer energy to the front. As a result, the rear tends to overheat, causing a thermal imbalance between the two axles.
Mercedes has reported a lack of rotation in the first sector, which is not fully resolved during the lap, thus maintaining the limitation. They reduced the wing, using the same version employed at Monza, but with a different configuration (for example, with a different angle of incidence of the profiles). For McLaren, we can say that it has shown significant potential, although this has not been fully exploited so far. The MCL38 single-seater stands out for its excellent balance in cornering, with extremely precise turn-in that allows the drivers to tackle the corners with confidence.
On exit, the car remains very stable, both at medium and low speeds, with solid traction that optimizes the pace in the more technical sections. Despite these qualities, McLaren still presents a significant gap in top speed compared to Ferrari and Mercedes, which could be a limitation on the longer straights, where maximum speed is crucial. Part of this difference can be attributed to efficiency not being on the same level as their competitors, even though the MCL38 seems to prefer a setup oriented towards optimizing mechanical grip and stability, sacrificing top speed to some extent.
This strategy reflects a more conservative approach, aimed at ensuring predictable and consistent behavior of the car in the twisty sections, with the goal of building a solid foundation on which to further improve overall performance. To fully compete with Ferrari and Mercedes, it will be necessary to find a better balance between grip and top speed, refining the setup to exploit the car’s full potential in every phase of the race weekend. Top speeds will indeed be essential both for attacking and defending during Sunday’s race.
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