Oh how we laughed back in two thousand and whenever it was, at the banners around the Baku track proclaiming "Well Done Baku!"
Fact is however, whether by design or not, over those few years the circuit has provided more than its fair share of shocks and surprises, thrill and spills. The question is, will we all be echoing those words in a couple of hours and saying "well done Baku" ourselves?
Courtesy of those spills which have continued over into this weekend, even into the support races, we are almost guaranteed a safety car or two, maybe even the odd red flag.
Whether this will be as early as the first lap, indeed the first corner, remains to be seen, however, other than those Raging Bulls and Prancing Horses, we have a whole field of Eager Beavers right behind... with a few porpoises thrown in.
While overtaking is possible here, first corner advantage always helps, especially in terms of drivers assisting their teammates. Of course, that raises any number of possibilities at Red Bull where the Verstappen family is clearly not entirely comfortable with Sergio Perez' increasing confidence.
At Ferrari, on the other hand, even though we are told there are no team orders, Carlos Sainz will no doubt be under orders to assist his teammate.
While this quartet decide among themselves who should have the advantage, the pack behind will be keen to take full advantage of any slips.
Like Monaco, Baku is an unforgiving circuit and mistakes are punished, and as we have seen over the years in the heat of the moment even the best of them can come to grief as they seek to thread their machines through the eye of the needle that is this circuit's castle section.
Looking at the chasing pack, Pierre Gasly splits the Mercedes pair, with Yuki Tsunoda there to lend assistance, while, albeit courtesy of some late tows, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso are in the mix.
Then come the McLarens, with Daniel Ricciardo, who has shone her in the past, desperately needing a good result.
We hear from a very, very, very reliable source that the next time Mick Schumacher crashes he is out of a job, so the German would do well to keep it on the black stuff this afternoon and not try any heroics.
While we cannot rely on the Weather Gods in terms of rain, the wind could play a part, after all Baku is the City of Winds.
Having looked strong for much of the weekend, Alfa Romeo was disappointing when it mattered, but in all honesty qualifying, due to the numerous yellow flags and traffic jams was hardly a true indicator of the pecking order.
Though we are expecting a one-stopper - of which more later - incidents and the resultant safety cars, real or virtual, and red flags, mean that strategy could be vital.
In which case, Ferrari had better start getting its act together... while at Red Bull Jos Verstappen will no doubt be watching things intently, his finger hovering over the 'post' button that features on his son's website.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to find the right adjective to describe races, keyboard warriors likely to jump all over us no matter how we react, so let's just say that we hope for an "interesting" race, a race we deserve, a race that allows us to say: Well done Baku!
The race is a clear one-stopper, under normal circumstances. But there are two ways to approach it, and also a high safety car probability, which could turn things around entirely.
The easiest way is to start on the medium and then move onto the hard. This gives a wide pit stop window and therefore plenty of options, making it a good conservative choice. Those wishing to try something a bit edgier could use soft to hard. The soft stint will deliver a bit of extra speed initially, but it means an earlier pit stop and more careful management.
Either of those strategies is good, but the big unknown is safety cars, which could offer a 'free' pit stop at any point. But there have also been races in Baku that were remarkably clean: so it's not something that anyone can rely on.
What's certain is that a two-stopper is distinctly slower... unless there's a very good reason to do it.
The pitlane opens and the drivers begin to head out, leading the way the Alpine pair.
Air temperature is 26 degrees C, while the track temperature is 48 degrees. Risk of rain is 0%.
On his way to the grid Hamilton is already complaining about a lot of bouncing.
Russell believes P5 is the maximum today, while Toto Wolff says Hamilton does not believe he will get to the finish.
"You can see from the ride of the car that's just very difficult," says the Austrian, "I spoke to Lewis in the car and he said 'I am not sure we can do all the race with all the bottoming'. There's nothing I can say at that stage."
All are on mediums, bar Ricciardo, Ocon, Bottas, Latifi, Stroll and Schumacher who are all on hards.
They head off on the formation lap, all get away.
"Elbows out into Turn 1," Perez is told, "it's all to play for."
The grid forms.
They're away. Perez gets the jump on Leclerc and leads into Turn 1, the Monegasque locking-up heavily, while Sainz is all over Verstappen. Clearly having learned from history it's all rather clean with no silliness. Indeed, other than Perez on Leclerc, the only other move of note is Vettel getting ahead of Tsunoda.
At the end of lap 1, it's: Perez 1.3s ahead of Leclerc, then Verstappen, Sainz, Russell, Gasly, Hamilton, Vettel, Tsunoda and Alonso.
Latifi is under investigation for a start-line incident. Indeed, the Canadian receives a 10s stop and go for a starting grid infringement.
It appears the Williams driver was out of position at the start and a mechanic pushed him back into place.
DRS is enabled, but neither Verstappen nor Ricciardo is able to take advantage.
At the end of lap 3, Latifi serves his penalty.
"Red Bull is quick," says Sainz as he falls 2.5s behind Verstappen.
As Perez extends a 2.2s lead, Leclerc is under intense pressure from the second Red Bull, the pair trading fastest sectors.
Magnussen passes Albon for 15th while Hamilton is all over Gasly.
Told to manage his rears, Ricciardo is asked to hold station behind his teammate.
Leclerc is advised that Perez is "struggling for traction", possibly due to that aggressive start.
"If this is his best pace, I've got more," advises Ricciardo of his teammate. The Australian is on hards whilst Norris is on mediums.
"Keep the patience up," Verstappen is told. "Nothing is running away from you at the front, and nothing behind."
"Something failed," reports Sainz as he heads down the escape road at Turn 1 and stops.
The VSC is deployed.
Leclerc pits, the Monegasque switching to hards in what was a slow stop. Russell also stops, as do Gasly, Hamilton, Vettel, Tsunoda and several others.
With Mercedes having double-stacked, Vettel has got ahead of Hamilton.
"Did he have a free stop," asks Verstappen of Leclerc.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Baku, here.
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