Brake cooling tweaks headline a skinny checklist of upgrades dropped at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix .
The Baku Metropolis Circuit’s lengthy straights within the first and third sectors result in a few of the largest braking zones on the calendar. Drivers wash off 130 mph – from 205 mph to 75 mph – into the primary flip. Drivers expertise 5g at each Flip 1 and Flip 3.
Ferrari will deal with the excessive braking calls for with a much bigger entrance brake duct exit made particularly for this circuit to enhance brake cooling.
Charles Leclerc has claimed the final 4 Baku pole positions in succession for Ferrari in addition to the dash pole in 2023, although the Monegasque has but to win a race at this observe in any format.
Racing Bulls has additionally introduced circuit-specific brake upgrades this weekend, modifying brake ducts on the entrance and rear of the automotive to “improve cooling movement … to go well with the necessities of the circuit.”
Purple Bull Racing will apply an improve unrelated to the precise calls for of the observe, bringing a reprofiled inboard meeting for the RB21’s rear wing. The staff has described it as a “gentle” improve that may enhance downforce with out harming the steadiness of the airflow on the rear of the automotive.
Purple Bull Racing can be counting on the ground upgrades it dropped at Monza – the place Max Verstappen dominated the race – to assist enhance its efficiency in Baku. The staff was uncompetitive at each rounds final 12 months, qualifying half a second off the tempo within the 2024 version of the Azerbaijan race. Verstappen completed fifth, although Sergio Perez might have completed on the rostrum had been it not for a late crash with Carlos Sainz.
Mercedes has additionally introduced a revised entrance wing that includes entrance wing flaps with a shorter chord – the gap between the main and trailing edges. The staff says the change will cut back downforce on the modified components of the entrance wing in a bid to higher steadiness the automotive when it’s geared up with a low-downforce rear wing.
Regardless of the twisty center sector of the Baku observe, groups usually arrange their automobiles for low downforce given the time obtainable to be gained down the lengthy flat-out blast between Flip 16 and the primary braking zone at Flip 1.
McLaren, Aston Martin, Alpine, Haas, Williams and Sauber didn’t declare any new parts for this weekend’s race, with all groups now closely targeted on their 2026 automobiles.
