This next weekend will see the fourth race of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship takes place in Baku, the city that hosts the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The newly redesigned sprint race will be held for the first time this coming weekend. Instead of serving as a qualifier for the main race, as it had in the past, the sprint race will now stand on its own as its own competition. Despite this, there are still points up for grabs in the championship for both the drivers and the teams.
How to watch Azerbaijan Grand Prix Live:
Viewers around the world can watch the action live on the following channels and here for free:
Live Broadcast: F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Live
When exactly does the Azerbaijan Grand Prix take place?
On Sunday, April 30, 2023, the fourth race of the FIA Formula One® 2023 season will take place at the Baku City Circuit.
The first practice session and the qualifying round for the Grand Prix will take place on Friday, April 28. The Sprint Shootout and the Sprint Race will be held on Saturday, April 18.
When exactly does the Azerbaijan Grand Prix get underway?
On Sunday, April 30, 2023, the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix will get underway at three o’clock in the afternoon local time, which translates to nine o’clock in the evening AEST.
Where exactly does the Azerbaijan Grand Prix take place, and how many laps does it consist of?
The competition is held at the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan, which is located in the country of Azerbaijan.
The competition will consist of 51 laps, with a total distance of 306.049 kilometres covered.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix Preview
It’s been four weeks since the previous Formula One race weekend, and a lot has changed since the last time things were this close to being the same. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix has returned with a program for the weekend that has never been seen before.
In Baku, we will have both a sprint race and the very first sprint qualifying that has ever been held. This implies that on Friday there will only be one practice session, followed by qualifying. Both the “sprint shootout” and the sprint race will take place on Saturday, although none of these events will have any bearing on the starting position for Sunday’s race. It is almost as if Formula One is attempting to make up for the unanticipated four-week gap that was caused by the cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix by packing in as much meaningful racing as is physically feasible.
Baku City Circuit, which was created by Hermann Tilke and spans 3.7 miles, is where the Azerbaijan Grand Prix takes place. It is a Hermann Tilke-designed street circuit that has the fundamental characteristics of a 1.3-mile straight and long pit bordering the shore of the Caspian Sea, in addition to several sharp turns in Baku’s historic city centre. Hermann Tilke is credited as the designer of the Baku City Circuit.
Because the portion of the track in the old town’s narrow maze of streets is comparable to that of the principality of Monaco, while the long straights and heavy braking zones are not dissimilar to what can be found at the Temple of Speed in Monza’s Royal Park, the circuit can be described as a mix of Monaco and Monza.
Baku’s lack of high-speed bends means that downforce levels are among the lowest of the season, but drivers still have plenty of opportunity to push power into their tires. The difficulty for the teams is reducing the amount of downforce they generate as much as they can while still keeping the tires pushed hard enough to maintain the ideal temperature range. The C3, the C4, and the C5 are the three softer compounds that Pirelli has put up as candidates for the race. The C3 will compete in the hard category, the C4 will compete in the medium category, and the C5 will compete in the soft category.
Even if the weather is expected to be great, the freshly laid asphalt in Baku will present a new challenge for everyone to overcome throughout the course of this weekend.
Due to the fact that the rescheduled Sprint race and the qualifying session for the Sprint Shootout will both take place on Saturday, the traditionally held qualifying session for the main race on Sunday will now take place on Friday.
Max Verstappen, who drives for Red Bull Racing, has the lead in the Drivers’ Championship with 69 points heading into the weekend. Sergio Perez, another driver for Red Bull, is in second place with 54 points, while Fernando Alonso, who drives for Aston Martin, is in third place with 45 points. Red Bull is currently in first place in the constructors’ championship with 123 points, followed by Aston Martin with 65 points and Mercedes-Benz AMG with 56 points. In the Grand Prix of Azerbaijan that took place a year ago, the race was won by Verstappen while he was driving for Red Bull.
