Christian Horner: "Checo absolutely excelled today. He had the pace and really controlled the race, he benefitted from the timing of the safety car but it was a phenomenal performance from him today and all weekend. Hats off to him. We were unlucky with the safety car and the pit stop for Max. Sometimes things like that don't go your way but that is racing and we will learn from it. Other than that it was an excellent performance from the whole team, another 1-2, our 25th! Things are clicking for us at the moment and it sets us up well for next week but it is still early days, there are 19 races and 5 more sprint races in this long season. With each race comes moments to savour but just as many learnings, we take those and move to the next challenge, preparation for Miami is already well under way, see you at the beach!"
Scuderia Ferrari leaves Baku having secured its first podium finish of the season courtesy of Charles Leclerc's third place. The team also got its best points total of the year so far, thanks to the ten scored by fifth placed Carlos Sainz. The podium is a morale booster for Leclerc and indeed for the whole team and a reward for all the hard work this weekend and over the past few weeks, highlighting the progress made with the SF-23. It is clear from qualifying and race performance that development is going in the right direction, even if there is still much to do to be able to fight for the win.
The race was not very eventful: Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez made the most of their straight-line speed to get ahead of Charles and then, almost the entire field pitted for the compulsory tyre change when the Safety Car came out following Nick de Vries' accident on lap 10. That's what Charles and Carlos did, with the mechanics performing a perfect double stop, in 2.4 and 2.9 seconds respectively, the drivers rejoining in second and fourth respectively. At the restart, Verstappen had dropped to third after pitting just before the Safety Car, but he passed Leclerc, while Fernando Alonso got ahead of Carlos. From then on, nothing changed for the Scuderia duo. In the closing stages, with his tyres clearly able to get to the chequered flag without any problem, Charles was lapping in similar times to Perez and Verstappen, fighting for the fastest race lap, while keeping the gap to Alonso. Carlos had Lewis Hamilton tailing him for the second part of the race, but the Englishman was never really able to attack.
Next stop USA. The pace of the season is picking up, with the championship resuming next Sunday with Round 5, the Miami Grand Prix.
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: Overall, this has been a positive weekend for the team. We took two pole positions and one podium finish with Charles and our overall points total, thanks also to Carlos' fifth place, is satisfactory. There were signs of progress in Melbourne, but they were overshadowed by the poor race result. In the four week break, we worked hard in Maranello and here in Baku we have made further progress which translated into a good result.
We definitely are back to where we wanted to be in terms of qualifying, but there's still a significant gap to Red Bull in the race. However, we aim to fight them for the win and we are gearing up to do just that. It's a morale booster for the whole team to finish on the podium, something which we will carry forward as we prepare for next weekend's race in Miami.
Lewis Hamilton finished sixth and George Russell eighth in the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Following Qualifying on Friday, Lewis lined up fifth with George starting 11th for Sunday's race, both on the medium compound tyre.
Lewis held position in the early laps with George gaining two places to run in P9. As both cars began to struggle with tyre degradation, Lewis was unfortunate to pit one lap before the Safety Car was deployed and lost out to others around him.
George took advantage of the Safety Car to pit for the hard tyre as the order was shuffled; George moving up to P6 and Lewis dropping to P10. On the restart, George struggled however, and they switched positions once again; George ultimately landing in P8 and Lewis P6. Despite valiant efforts to pass cars ahead, Lewis and George could not make further progress; George taking the point for fastest lap after a free late race stop on to the soft tyre.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: Today was not a thriller. There was very little overtaking even with a big pace difference. We headed into a sub optimum set-up direction during FP1 and by the time we realised it was too late, and the car was in parc ferme conditions. It's the same for everyone though under this format.
The pace in free air today looked similar between ourselves, the Ferraris and the Aston Martins. It was hard to tell who was ultimately quicker though, because with the difficulty of overtaking you are stuck where you are stuck. The Red Bulls meanwhile sailed away into the sunset on merit. If we can get the platform right though, I think we can close that gap this year. It's not about adding points of downforce, more giving the drivers a car that they have confidence in.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: We're never going to get excited about sixth and eighth place, but it was a day where the car wasn't particularly quick and neither driver had much luck during the race. Lewis had a decent opening lap; he'd started to get a bit of pressure from Alonso towards the end of the stint, so we came in to protect the position. Unfortunately, that was the lap before the Safety Car, so he lost out. A good restart helped the recovery, but he just couldn't get past Sainz.
George had a really good opening lap, getting through some key cars early on. He was able to take the stop under the Safety Car but then struggled on the restart and lost a couple of places. Similarly to Lewis, he just couldn't make a pass despite having a bit more pace so our only consolation was a point for fastest lap at the end. We haven't got long to wait before we are bringing some more performance to the car and in the meantime, we just need to focus on collecting as many points as possible. We're hoping the car will be a bit better suited to the track in Miami and looking forward to being able to get back on track in just a few days.
BWT Alpine F1 Team finished today's Azerbaijan Grand Prix with Pierre Gasly fourteenth and Esteban Ocon fifteenth on a weekend filled with frustration and disappointment for the team.
In a race which featured little action or opportunity to make progress up the field, the team turned to a bold strategy for both drivers with the aim to get ahead of cars in front. Pierre was able to make a pair of neat overtakes on Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant into Turn 1 during the 51-lap race and, in the end, finished fourteenth on a two-stop Medium-Hard-Hard strategy.
Starting from the Pit Lane, Esteban remained on-track until the penultimate lap of the race, when, for his mandatory pit-stop, he pitted for new Soft tyres for his sole lap on the red compound to finish in fifteenth at the chequered flag.
The team looks ahead to next weekend's Miami Grand Prix looking for a more positive and representative outing at the Hard Rock Stadium-based circuit.
Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal: "It's been a bitterly disappointing weekend for the team in Baku and we must not repeat this type of performance again. We very much started on the backfoot on Friday and since then we were not able to make any kind of recovery in any of the sessions. We were quite far off on car set-up on Friday during practice and with such limited running - notably with some reliability issues on both cars - we left ourselves with a mountain to climb for the remainder of the weekend. We must limit these problems going forward and begin all Grand Prix weekends on the front-foot to make sure we give ourselves the best possible chance on Saturday and Sunday to score points. We demonstrated our race pace in Australia and we have a better chance to validate our upgrade package in Miami. We must keep working hard as a team, keep up our understanding of how to maximise the most from our package and target a much-improved overall team performance next weekend Stateside."
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "An interesting weekend in Azerbaijan with the new Sprint format. Our main objective for the weekend remained preparing for the race: this was where the most points were available. The top four teams are a little bit ahead at the moment, so the mission was to be at the head of the midfield. We achieved that thanks to the upgrades we fitted this weekend. Thanks go to the team back at the factory and at track for helping us bring these parts to the car. Over the next few races, we will be able to verify how much of that is a genuine improvement, and how much was track-specific.
"Lando, once again, was rock solid. Another clean weekend brings us a couple of very useful points. We were highly impressed with Oscar too. He's been unwell this weekend but managed to focus on the job, also delivering a clean weekend with no mistakes. Thank you to our excellent medical staff for their continuous support throughout the weekend. We hope he'll be feeling better in a few days when we start again in Miami."
Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake endured a difficult weekend in the streets of Baku, with no points at the end of a challenging Sprint event. In the main Sunday race, Valtteri Bottas finished 18th, while team-mate Zhou Guanyu's race ended prematurely with technical issues that are currently being investigated by the team.
A tough event for Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake: the team will need to regroup and make a decisive step forward to regain the competitiveness with which it had started the season. As Azerbaijan goes into the history books, Formula One moves to Miami for the final leg of this back-to-back, next week.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "This was a disappointing race and it showed that, right now, our package is not competitive enough to score points. The priority for everyone of us in the team - here at the track and back at base - is to work hard and make the improvements necessary to get back where we expect to be. The field remains tight, and we can get back into this battle: but we must deliver a step forward to do so. We are all fully committed to this and we're going to do whatever it takes to get there."
Mike Krack, Team Principal: "Another well-executed weekend by the entire team and we leave Baku with a combined total of 22 points. That is a good return from quite a challenging event on a very demanding street circuit. Full credit to the drivers who did an excellent job to make progress from their starting positions. They managed the Hard tyres well over a long stint, while maintaining good race pace, and brought the cars home safely to round off a clean weekend. This sets us up nicely for our first trip of the year to the United States next week as we get ready to entertain the fans in Miami."
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg finished 13th and 17th respectively at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Round 4 of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, held Sunday at the Baku City Circuit.
Magnussen started from 16th position on Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires and gained position through a hectic opening few corners, despite contact with the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas. Magnussen held 13th place and pitted on lap 11 when a Safety Car was called to retrieve the stranded AlphaTauri of Nyck de Vries. Magnussen took on White hard tires and a new front wing and spent the rest of the race battling in a closely-contested midfield, classifying 13th.
Hulkenberg started the race from pit lane on hard tires after set-up changes were made to his VF-23 after the Sprint race on Saturday. Hulkenberg stayed out behind the Safety Car and ran inside the top 10 after opponents in the mid-pack made their compulsory tire stops. Hulkenberg extended his stint, in case of another incident causing a safety car period or red flag, but eventually came in on the penultimate lap for his mandatory service, taking on Red soft tires through to the end.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team maintains seventh position in the Constructors' Championship.
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: "Kevin got his front wing endplate knocked off at the start because Bottas in front of him locked-up, so he couldn't avoid him, and it was severe enough to make a front wing change. With Nico, we tried a different strategy and it didn't work because the Safety Car came too early. All in all, the performance of the car was good and we could hold pace with the Alpine and McLaren. I think we just have to take this one as a little dip and come back in Miami, where maybe for our car it's even better, being a medium-downforce circuit."
Guillaume Dezoteux (Head of Vehicle Performance): "We are very happy to end the weekend with a point. Yuki drove a solid race, the strategy calls were right and the pit stop was competitive. At the start of the race, we knew it would be difficult to hold faster cars behind us, but Yuki remained focused, made no mistakes and settled in a train of cars with both McLarens, a Haas and an Alpine. We were continuously evaluating safety car scenarios and monitoring other cars to react, although in the end, there was nothing to react to. Nyck's race started well with an offset strategy. We decided to start on the hard tyre, chasing any opportunity to make ground through the pack. Unfortunately, he made contact with the inside of Turn 5 and broke his front left track rod, which forced him to stop on track. Overall, this weekend has been solid and the track layout has suited us better. There are similarities in Miami, so we will review everything in the next couple of days to prepare as best we can for next weekend."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "Firstly, congratulations to Red Bull Racing for another front-row finish. As for our weekend, we came to this race with some aero updates, and I'm pleased to say they seem to work very well. The team in Bicester did a fantastic job because we have been competitive from the very beginning of the weekend. The highlight was of course Friday's qualifying, where Yuki finished in eighth position. As for today's race, he was overtaken by Stroll and Russell on the first lap, but this is what I expected as their cars are simply faster than ours. Nevertheless, Yuki did a fantastic job. He was able to split the McLarens, staying quite close to Norris and keeping Piastri behind. Overall, a big congratulations to Yuki for another strong performance, which shows how much he is improving race by race. Unfortunately, Nyck had an accident, he touched the wall in turn 5, breaking the front left track rod, and that was the end of his race. Generally speaking, we have improved the car performance dramatically since the start of the season, so now I am even more looking forward to the next race in Miami."
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: Alex suffered some front wing damage on the opening lap, which hurt the car balance and cost him downforce. Despite this he was able to put together another very strong race; he dealt with the pressure from Gasly and Magnussen brilliantly whilst also staying close to Piastri ahead. The timing of the early safety car was unfortunate for our strategy, but that is the nature of racing at Baku.
Having missed the sprint race yesterday, Logan started the Grand Prix somewhat on the back foot but still put together a strong drive to fight with Zhou and Gasly. His pace and car management were competitive and gave him some very valuable learning for the future.
We arrived in Baku for this new style sprint event expecting it to be a challenge. Although we rose to that challenge well and were able to put together a strong performance overall, it is frustrating not to get some points for our effort. Nonetheless, we head to Miami with some positive momentum and another good opportunity to challenge the top 10.
Sergio Perez led a Red Bull one-two at the Baku street circuit for the second consecutive year, followed home by his team mate Max Verstappen. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, on pole for the third consecutive year following Friday's qualifying, finished third to secure his team's first podium of the year.
The strategies were influenced by a safety car in the early stages of the race. The majority of drivers, including the podium finishers, swapped from medium to hard tyres between laps nine and 11. Nearly every driver took the flag on the hard tyre, setting personal best laps in the closing minutes as the tyres and times got faster, despite the long stints.
The reliability of the hard tyre in Baku was underlined by Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine's Esteban Ocon. Both started from the pit lane with a new set of hards and then finished the race on the P Zero Red soft, changing tyres with just two laps and one lap to go respectively. The Frenchman completed 50 laps - practically the entire race distance - on the same set of hard tyres.
The fastest lap on the hard tyre was set by Verstappen (1m44.232s) while the fastest time on the medium came from Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas (1m46.304s), who also completed the longest stint on this compound at 16 laps. The fastest overall race lap was set by Mercedes driver George Russell on the final lap, after switching to the soft tyre one lap earlier to hunt down an additional championship point.
There was just one neutralisation, on lap 11, after De Vries touched the wall and brought out a safety car. Some drivers had previously tried an undercut by stopping early, including Verstappen who switched tyres just seconds before the decision to send out the safety car was made. Most teams used the safety car to make a pit stop with both drivers.
Just three drivers selected the hard at the start: De Vries (from last on the grid) as well as Ocon and Hulkenberg. Ocon, Hulkenberg and Russell were the only drivers to run the soft in the race.
Bottas made several visits to the pit lane. Starting on medium, he switched to hard on lap six and then stopped again for another set of hards under the safety car. With 16 laps to go he switched to the medium - the only driver to finish the race on that compound.
Temperatures were similar to Saturday at around 25 to 28 degrees centigrade ambient, with track temperature peaking at 44 degrees shortly after the start.
Mario Isola - Motorsport Director: "From start to finish, this was an intense race. As we fully expected, nearly all the drivers chose an opening stint on the P Zero Yellow medium before moving onto the P Zero White hard: only the drivers who started from the pit lane - Alpine's Esteban Ocon and Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg - or those at the back of the grid like AlphaTauri's Nyck De Vries, chose to start with a long stint on the hard tyre before going onto soft in the hope of a safety car during the closing stages.
"With very little long run data to fall back on, which was mainly collected during yesterday's Sprint, there were a few more unknowns than usual heading into today's grand prix. We're pleased that the hard tyre not only showed a good level of reliability, with some runs of 300 kilometres on it, but that it also allowed drivers to push as hard as they liked. Proof of this came from the spectacular exchange of fastest laps among the top four, all from different teams, which additionally underlines the versatility of this compound. The fact that the best time among them (1m44.232s from Verstappen) was 1.8 seconds faster than last year's fastest race lap is significant. The medium, which everyone had a bit more information on compared to the hard, showed performance in line with expectations but suffered from less graining, probably thanks also to the extra grip offered by the new asphalt."
