Although the Azerbaijan GP result was a disappointing way to end the weekend, there were still things to take forward from our visit to Baku

Ahead of our trips to Malaysia and Singapore, the first stop in this triple header was Azerbaijan and the city streets of Baku. Last weekend’s event marked the tenth anniversary of F1’s first visit to the Azerbaijan capital, although ‘weekend’ was loosely used, as the Grand Prix was brought forward at the request of the promoter for a national day of remembrance. It meant the whole timetable was earlier than usual, with practice starting on Thursday.

Building up confidence

One of the keys to improving lap time at a street circuit is waiting for the track to become ‘rubbered in’, as the surface is notoriously dirty and dusty at the start of practice. The best way for drivers to acclimatise to the conditions is to keep circulating with trouble-free laps, building up confidence and understanding.

Across the first two hours on Thursday, that’s exactly what Pierre and Franco achieved, getting as much mileage as they could while running on Pirelli’s three tyre compounds. Across FP1 and FP2, Pierre completed 45 laps, equivalent to 270km, while Franco managed one lap more, with 46 in total (276km).

While the times from FP1 are notably unrepresentative at street tracks, by the afternoon, the pace of the A526 at the Baku City Circuit was clear. Pierre was starting to push the limits of the car on each lap as the track evolved. He finished the afternoon session P7 on the timesheets, while Franco sat just outside the top ten.

Meanwhile, back at base in Enstone, former F1 driver Daniil Kvyat was watching the on-boards intently and providing feedback. With 110 F1 starts to his name, and three podium finishes, Daniil is able to draw on his experience to help the engineering teams, while also taking to the simulator through day and into the night, to help Pierre and Franco trackside.

Triple podium success

Across the Azerbaijan GP, it was a busy support card for the FIA Formula 2 Championship, which had a supersized weekend featuring three races. The Sprint Race took place on Friday morning, followed by two, full points, Feature Races.

In all, it was a brilliant weekend performance from Alpine Academy racer Alex Dunne, who took his first F2 victory of the season, and totalled three podiums across all three races. It was an excellent set of results for the young Irishman, which elevated him to third in the championship battle.

The Baku event started in style for Dunne, who negotiated the tricky streets to perfection to secure pole position for the first Feature Race and a front-row start for Saturday’s second. Starting tenth on the grid for the Sprint, the 20-year-old drove superbly to fight up the field and finished third.

He later had the honour of standing on the top step of the podium in the first Feature Race. He also crossed the finish line in P1 in Feature Race 2, but dropped to third in the classification after picking up a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line at the pit-lane entry.

Dunne leaves Baku third overall on 189 points, having scored 50 points during the weekend and is 18 points behind top spot. Behind him is Alpine Academy team-mate Gabriele Mini on 163 points, while Kush Maini — who celebrated his 26th birthday last week — is ninth in the standings.

Third double Q3 appearance of the year

After visiting the Fan Forum on Friday morning, where Pierre and Franco were delighted to see so much support, it was back to Baku’s challenging streets for final practice before Qualifying.

Pierre was the first runner to circulate the dusty track, kicking up the leaves as he completed the 6km lap, and was happy at the end of the session to finish P6. That strong performance continued into Qualifying, with the Frenchman building up his pace on each run through Q1 and Q2.

“It’s probably the best I have felt in Baku for a long time in terms of car balance and being confident to really push the car,” said Pierre after recording a time good enough for P7 on the grid. “Q3 was a little messy with yellow flags compromising my laps, but that is just a typical characteristic of this track.”

Franco also made it to Q3, by just 0.092s, to secure our third double top-ten qualifying performance of the year. As Managing Director Steve Nielsen noted after running on Friday, a P7 and P10 — which became P9 after Carlos Sainz picked up a five-place grid penalty — were evidence of the progress we have made, especially when compared with the P16 and P19 qualifying positions we achieved at this circuit 12 months ago.

A difficult race after a strong weekend

After a great launch from both drivers off the line, the opening phase of the Azerbaijan GP was progressing well, with Pierre running eighth and Franco circulating behind in P9. Both drivers started on the medium tyre and, with degradation less of a factor in the cooler race-day temperatures, there was no urgency to pit.

By lap 23, championship leader Kimi Antonelli had made progress from his P16 starting position and overtook Franco into Turn 1. Seven laps later, Lando Norris made a mistake going into the first corner, enabling Pierre to gain a position, although he too was about to be passed by Antonelli when the Safety Car was deployed after Williams driver Alex Albon went into the wall.

Running seventh, Pierre was the first of the leaders to pit, as the top six had passed the pit lane entry before the Safety Car was confirmed. It was an excellent turnaround by the crew, who also serviced Franco immediately behind Pierre with both pitstops being ranked as two of the fastest of the race. When the leaders stopped on the next lap, the status quo was resumed.

Unfortunately, on the restart on lap 36, Franco made an error, collided with Pierre, who spun into Norris as they rounded the first corner. Franco was able to drive back to the pits, but the damage to his car meant he was unable to continue.

“I’m very disappointed with today’s race and I’m really sorry to the team, to everyone at the factory, Pierre and Lando [Norris] of course, and to everyone who has been supporting us,” said Franco. “It was a big mistake on my side and it should not happen. I locked up with cold tyres, cold brakes, and was out of control. I know the team has done a good job all weekend with the performance of the car so I am really sorry for what happened as we were in a good position to score double points.”

In his 31 starts for Alpine (not including the non-start at Silverstone last year), this was Franco’s first retirement with the team. It was also our first double DNF for 74 races, dating back to Hungary 2023.

Despite the disappointing ending, the pace and performance shown throughout the Azerbaijan Grand Prix provided plenty of encouragement, particularly the team’s third double Q3 appearance of the season and the progress made compared with last year.

Our focus is now on the next two races, starting with a welcome return to Sepang for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, before heading to Singapore a week later.