What the tyres reveal about the strategy for the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. In the last three races of the season, we have seen that the safety car has played a big role in the outcome of the Grand Prix.

The fourth round of the 2018 Formula One championship, which is scheduled to take place this weekend in Azerbaijan, will probably be a turning point in the 2018 season. It could be the battle that may give Scuderia Ferrari the possibility to gain a big advantage over Mercedes or Lewis Hamilton could get back on the saddle and start his winning spree.

The tyre strategy is slightly varying between the teams and their drivers for the Baku race. Lewis Hamilton’s choice is nine sets of ultrasofts and two sets of softs and super softs while Valtteri Bottas has gone for a similar number of ultrasofts, an extra set of supersoft and one fewer softs.

The Scuderia Ferrari drivers have gone for ten ultrasofts and Sebastian Vettel has chosen more supersofts while Kimi Räikkönen had opted for two sets of softs. Both the Red Bull drivers have an identical set of choices.

Since the Baku race has been bumped up by two months, the temperatures are expected to be much cooler compared to last year. The free practice sessions take place during the day and the actual race will be after 4 pm, which means the temperature will be a lot cooler during the race and the teams will have to figure out the right set of tyres without a Free Practice during the evening. As the track is a tightly packed street circuit, is it will be hard to figure out which parts of the track are cooler and which sectors are warm. Fortunately, the two kilometres long straight can give some time for the tyres to cool down before the braking zone starts.

Last year’s race results were impacted by the safety car and red flag. So if that happens again, the results of the race might be surprising. Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo used a three-stop strategy and won the race after having started at the tenth place on the grid.

In the last three races of the season, we have seen that the safety car has played a big role in the outcome of the Grand Prix and taking into consideration the characteristics of the Baku City Circuit, the race in Azerbaijan always promises to be an exciting one.