31/03/2023
NEWS STORY
Red Bull boss, Christian Horner has described the decision to hold a Sprint event at Baku, a street circuit, as ludicrous.
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix, later this month, is the first of six Sprints scheduled for this season, and with a reputation for incidents, Horner believes hosting such an event on the Baku track is literally an accident waiting to happen.
"It's absolutely ludicrous to be doing the first sprint race of the year in a street race like Azerbaijan," said the Red Bull boss at today's FIA press conference.
"From a spectacle point of view, from a fan point of view, it's probably going to be one of the most exciting sprint races of the year," he admitted. "But from a cost cap perspective, all you can do is trash your car. And it costs a lot of money around there. So one race is enough in Baku, the fact that we've got two, there could be well some action there.
"But that's part of the challenge," he continued, "and it's part of the task that we've got. Hopefully, we can tidy up the format for the sprint races coming up, that they are bit more that they are a bit more dynamic.
"I know that the sporting directors have been working hard on that and hopefully we can get that that finalised. A sprint race in Azerbaijan is something to be certainly wary of."
"Baku creates some pretty exciting races and some big crash damage bills," added Zak Brown. "It’s the same for everyone, and it is what it is. It'll be very exciting for the fans, and hopefully all the cars will come back the way they started."
"It does seem that Baku always produces interesting racing," said Otmar Szafnauer, in a masterpiece of understatement. "And yes, there's more jeopardy because it's a street race and some of the walls are pretty close.
"The nice thing is we've got this three-week break to make some spares in order to be prepared for both the sprint race and the race in Baku, and hopefully it'll all be ok, and we won't suffer in Miami."
"Certainly there's some nervousness about it," agreed Mike Krack. "But it's the same for everybody. So we try to keep the cars in one piece as long as we can."
"I think we know enough about sprint events that we know how to get prepared," said Guenther Steiner. "I think everybody is leaving a little bit of a margin there knowing that some of these races could be tough for the budget.
"Baku always creates something unexpected. So hopefully we're not involved in the unexpected and come back safe without damage and with points."
Check out our Friday gallery from Melbourne here.