Grand Prix 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

after a massive 4 week break since the last time we had any racing because of Chinese GP still not appearing on the calendar due to covid. i think you might have to go back to 1999 for the last time there was month gap between races that wasnt either the summer break or post season break. strangely that after Australia as well & in 1999 they had 3 races in 2 months. 7th march, 11th april & 2nd may which would never happen now. but to reward all F1 fans for their patience there will be 6 F1 races in 8 weeks, Baku, Miami, Imola, Monaco, Spain & Canada. to add to that Le mans 24 hrs is happening in the week between Spain & Canada. but the way this season is going Max Verstappen might enter Le Mans & win that as well LOL

Baku has become an modern classic almost as soon as the 2nd year with the chaotic 2017 race where everyone came away saying they could've won but Daniel Riccardo did from 10th, Baku is a street circuit that feels like it has everything, its high speed but also has very technical middle sector, which features narrowest point of the F1 season the 12th century castle section is just 7.6 m wide & where Leclerc put it in 2019 qualifying when he looked certainty for pole. discounting the Inaugural Baku race which was the European GP which was because appartantly F1 drivers watched the GP2 races which were best races of 2016 & spooked into being very cautious. but since its been Azerbaijan GP it has been 1 of the highlights of the season on this forum bar 2019 it has been highly rated & in the top 5

on this weekend it is fully expected that this will be 1st of the new Stand Alone Sprint Format as Sprint Schedules are increased from 3 to 6, as Liberty media are desperate to shoehorn & find its place on the weekend calendar. unsurprisingly for F1 its Tuesday & despite FP1 starting in 70 hours nothing is official yet on whether Friday qualifying will set the grid for Saturday or Sunday :dunno:

but to the best of my Knowledge this should be schedule (UK time)

Friday
Free Practise 1 - 10.30am
Qualifying - 2 pm

Saturday
Free Practise 2 or Sprint Qualifying - 10.30am
Sprint Race - 2.30pm

Sunday
Race - 12pm
 
Make it make sense.

Come On What GIF
 

1 thing that has annoyed me is so we are just doing the same qualifying twice. you thought sprint qualifying would be a perfect place to try something new. but its going to be exactly the same just shorter

The Saturday sprint shootout will follow the same three-part format as traditional qualifying, with the reduced session lengths now confirmed as 12 minutes for what will be known as SQ1, 10 minutes for SQ2, and eight minutes for SQ3.
 
yes but FINALLY the cars will be able to run on maximum attack for the entire sprint race !!!

They promised, they pinky promised. They did, they did, THEY DID. :bawl:

Of course its all bollocks because if they run like idiots in the sprint race they'll either bust the car for Sunday's race, knacker the engine or get themselves a penalty for having to change something,
 
Please could everyone spare a thought for the drivers this weekend and especially for Fernando. We don't realise how hard things are for them:

Fernando's quote:

"But it is more stressful, especially the Saturday. Friday, we are used to this new format where we only have one practice.

"But the really different thing now is Saturday. Even in the past, doing one qualifying on Friday and Saturday, like in 2004 or 2006 or whenever, we had always practice before qualifying.

"Now, we have breakfast, we go in the car, we tighten the belts and we are in Q1. This is completely new. It is stressful, for sure, and more difficult for the drivers."

Bless them all.
 
Thoughts and prayers.

Do you remember Wayne Rooney once tweeted that "it wasn't much fun having to stuff down pasta at 11 in the morning" as Manchester United had a lunchtime kick off? The twittersphere responded by saying that for £385 grand a week most people would stuff pasta up their a@*e at 11 in the morning. Wayne came off twitter not long after.

I have much the same thoughts about Fernando and his stress. Knob.
 
the thing i dont get with alonso complaint that he has on saturday go straight into competitive action, because what the difference between saturday & what he has done for every season of his career (bar 2001 as they had the sunday warm up then) & wake up on Sunday go straight into competitive action


can i play devils advocate for a moment weirdly for both sides but. since the sprint was introduced we have been asking for the sprint race to be a stand alone feature & we have got that wish & it is stand alone. so why the negative reaction

& on the 1 practise per weekend instead of 3, with all the simulations the team have at their disposal, do they need 3 hours of practice. we already know that in the week leading up they are all practising in the simulator so they already have their eye in & computers overnight run through every possibly strategy & give them in detail Plan A Plan B & Plan C. in the simulators the already arrive to baku with all historical set up data. & simulator data of a baseline for setting the car up. so it really only fine tuning the car that needed. do they need 3 hours of practice surely the fact they have to guess at long run data is great. its what makes mixed weather races great as they try to figure what the crossover time is
 
we have been asking for the sprint race to be a stand alone feature & we have got that wish
Have we?

I always thought it was to mix up qualifying. Granted I'm not as informed regards F1 fan opinion as I once was but I don't recall any great demand for a stand alone sprint race.

The main outcome of this decision is to be able to charge increased prices for race weekends. Friday at Silverstone was a really cheap option (by comparison to a race day ticket) if you wanted to see the cars on track and experience a day at a GP. Friday will now contain the main GP qualifying session therefore you can bet your last penny they will increase the price of Friday tickets to that of the Saturday session.

Also, Friday the seating in any grandstand apart from the top price level was completely open. Saturday for qualifying you had to have an assigned seat ticket and remain in your allocated stand. Another way they'll make money is to sell allocated seats for the Qually sessions.

Saturday now contains a stand alone race so you can guarantee thst this will see a price increase.

This will fleece more money from people who want to watch the race.
 
interesting watching the qualifying build up & karun chandhok did a fasinating piece on why we had a 3rd red flag. because ocon & gasly triggered a G limit so by the safety rules the medics had to check them out & so because of that & the medical car was stopped on track. it nessciated a red flag
 
Have we?

I always thought it was to mix up qualifying. Granted I'm not as informed regards F1 fan opinion as I once was but I don't recall any great demand for a stand alone sprint race.

The main outcome of this decision is to be able to charge increased prices for race weekends. Friday at Silverstone was a really cheap option (by comparison to a race day ticket) if you wanted to see the cars on track and experience a day at a GP. Friday will now contain the main GP qualifying session therefore you can bet your last penny they will increase the price of Friday tickets to that of the Saturday session.

Also, Friday the seating in any grandstand apart from the top price level was completely open. Saturday for qualifying you had to have an assigned seat ticket and remain in your allocated stand. Another way they'll make money is to sell allocated seats for the Qually sessions.

Saturday now contains a stand alone race so you can guarantee thst this will see a price increase.

This will fleece more money from people who want to watch the race.
good point about money & im sure it probally is the root cause of it all. i remember colin murray on fighting talk talking about a bob mills quote that he's lived by. if you dont understand why something sporting has happened. say money & you won't be far wrong

it was to mix up qualifying which it did. sprint race might have been terrible but what we cant deny that it led to some of the best races of that season. but i would agree with the fans opinion in that it devalued qualifying because pole position means nothing. or If an underdog like russell in 2021 stuck his williams in 8th. after 100km has that great achievement gone. if your fastest over 1 lap you should be on pole on sunday
 
where has Mercedes straight line speed gone. 10th & 11th. 8 tenths off fastest time in Q2. slower than AlphaTauri both McLaren's. that chassis must be extremely draggy. james allison input i bet cant come soon enough

it was 3rd slowest mercedes engined car. if albon is true & blocked by sainz & found a tenth & a half. the works team wouldve been slower than all its customers
 
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