With three Grand Prix completed this season, the F1 circus heads to the city of Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. It’s another new circuit for Kiwi driver Brendon Hartley who has this year only finished in the Bahrain Grand Prix, retiring from both the Australian and Chinese races. So far, his Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 team has struggled for speed in Australia and China, but experienced the opposite in Bahrain with Hartley’s team mate Pierre Gasly finishing a well-deserved fourth and Hartley 17th.
“I’m looking forward to going to another new circuit,” commented Hartley. I don’t know how many different circuits I’ve driven in my career but I’m always excited to drive a new one. I think it’s very unique, being a street track, some really interesting corners with no room for error, which is always something I enjoy – probably most of the other drivers do too so we’re all in the same boat.
“From driving it on the simulator, the bit by the castle almost reminds me of Macau, which is one of my favourite tracks. I think I’m going to enjoy it and I’m really looking forward to the fourth race of the season. Apart from all the sim work, plus looking at videos of past races, I’ll be doing as much study as I can, so that I’d like to think that within ten laps, you’re pretty much up to speed.
“A lot of the work we do on the sim is actually for the engineers to develop the set-up and a small part of it is for the driver, but when you’re going to a new track then a bigger percentage of the work done is for the driver as well so it serves two purposes. Obviously there’s always those last few tenths still to come from a track that’s new to you, where knowing every bump in the road, changing conditions, wind direction, all have to be experienced at the actual circuit.
“But when you’ve driven hundreds of circuits in your life, you try and piece them together and look at one corner and compare that to somewhere else that you’ve been. Obviously experience counts for a lot when you’re learning a new track.
“You certainly expect that the sim is modelled as close to the real thing as possible but it’s always hard to know – is that kerb exactly the same? Does it get the same amount of grip? Are there other factors? Are there marbles?
“Therefore, it’s also useful to look at video of past races to see what lines the drivers take and you can also learn from that…and I can’t wait to have our track walk on Thursday!”
This weekend’s race will be a real test for all teams when it comes to tyre choice as previous running of the GP has been in June with much hotter weather. Baku is a street circuit with a very high-speed straight and different technical sectors offering contrasting surface temperatures that in turn affect tyre grip and hence key tyre selection.
With 18 more races on the 2018 calendar, Hartley’s aim of finishing a Grand Prix in the top ten and scoring points is quite achievable. Out front, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel continues to lead the championship from Mercedes’s drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas who are yet to win a race this season.
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