2023 Azerbaijan GP: Post Race Analysis

[SS454]

I think we can all agree that was one boring race. The most exciting moment was hearing Ted Kravitz lose his mind because photographers and whoever else were on pitlane when the race was still going and Alpine still needed to make a stop. Terrifying moment and there is zero excuse to let that happen. Lastly, how did Pirelli get it so wrong with the tires? Softs could barely last 7 laps, Mediums that started to fall off in 12 laps, and Hards that could go the whole race. Not a good balance.

Red Bull dominate the race. Sergio Perez perhaps had his best race ever. Sure he got a bit lucky with the SC, but he out-drove Max when it went green and that might be the first time he legitimately did that. Plus he scored max points with the Sprint race. I agree with Damon Hill that Verstappen has appeared a bit negative with the Sprint format, so maybe he wasn't as sharp as we normally see, but still a great result for the team.

Ferrari did make some improvements. Impressive since it was done without any upgrades, only some setup work. Red Bull may have had their engines turned down slightly, but they were likely pushing harder than some may think. For Leclerc to be 23 seconds off the lead vs 40, is a step in the right direction, but still a long way off. Sainz didn't look good this weekend. Lots of mistakes, and miles off his teammate.

Aston Martin played the team game as best they could. Both drivers committed to getting the best result for everyone. Of course Alonso is just much better than Stroll, so he was able to have another brilliant performance, just missing the podium. Stroll had a solid race, but a mistake let Hamilton by for 6th.

Mercedes remains a hit and miss type car. The low downforce tracks not being their strong point. Hamilton looked stronger than Sainz, so it was a bit surprising he wasn't able to stick a nose in for an attempt, but then again nobody really tried for passes in the second half of the race. Russell was gifted a huge gain with the SC and immediately threw it all away when the race went Green.

McLaren brought some upgrades and they appear to have made a big difference. Going from one of the worst cars to a car that qualifies both drivers in the top 10 and is able to get points. A successful race for McLaren for sure.

AlphaTauri managed to hold on for the final point. Tsunoda didn't really challenge Norris, but didn't let Piastri attack him either. Nyck de Vries making a strong case for being the worst driver on the grid.

Williams had to have expected better pace this weekend. The low downforce tracks suit their car. Good power, low drag, etc. Yet they just didn't have the pace, even at the hands of Albon who can often get a great result when the car is working.

Haas also didn't look very strong. Kevin Magnussen ended up finishing ahead of Hulkenberg. The team waiting as long as possible to pit him in hopes of a SC or red flag. Strategy didn't work out, but it may not have mattered.

Alpine performed even worse. They brought a very small, low downforce rear wing and the car was just flat out too slow. Ocon lead the DRS train for more than half the race, again hoping for a SC to salvage a shot for a point. Gasly had a weekend to forget. Many mistakes, too slow, and some bad luck.

Alfa Romeo had no shot at points. Again we have to recognize that Zhou was performing better than Bottas. No idea why he made so many pit stops.

Driver of the Day: Sergio Perez. Usually he is a good 4 tenths off Max's pace, so to outperform Verstappen and win the race, that deserves the DotD.

[Cavallino]

I think we can all agree that was one boring race. The most exciting moment was hearing Ted Kravitz lose his mind because photographers and whoever else were on pitlane when the race was still going and Alpine still needed to make a stop. Terrifying moment and there is zero excuse to let that happen. Lastly, how did Pirelli get it so wrong with the tires? Softs could barely last 7 laps, Mediums that started to fall off in 12 laps, and Hards that could go the whole race. Not a good balance.

Red Bull dominate the race. Sergio Perez perhaps had his best race ever. Sure he got a bit lucky with the SC, but he out-drove Max when it went green and that might be the first time he legitimately did that. Plus he scored max points with the Sprint race. I agree with Damon Hill that Verstappen has appeared a bit negative with the Sprint format, so maybe he wasn't as sharp as we normally see, but still a great result for the team.

Ferrari did make some improvements. Impressive since it was done without any upgrades, only some setup work. Red Bull may have had their engines turned down slightly, but they were likely pushing harder than some may think. For Leclerc to be 23 seconds off the lead vs 40, is a step in the right direction, but still a long way off. Sainz didn't look good this weekend. Lots of mistakes, and miles off his teammate.

Aston Martin played the team game as best they could. Both drivers committed to getting the best result for everyone. Of course Alonso is just much better than Stroll, so he was able to have another brilliant performance, just missing the podium. Stroll had a solid race, but a mistake let Hamilton by for 6th.

Mercedes remains a hit and miss type car. The low downforce tracks not being their strong point. Hamilton looked stronger than Sainz, so it was a bit surprising he wasn't able to stick a nose in for an attempt, but then again nobody really tried for passes in the second half of the race. Russell was gifted a huge gain with the SC and immediately threw it all away when the race went Green.

McLaren brought some upgrades and they appear to have made a big difference. Going from one of the worst cars to a car that qualifies both drivers in the top 10 and is able to get points. A successful race for McLaren for sure.

AlphaTauri managed to hold on for the final point. Tsunoda didn't really challenge Norris, but didn't let Piastri attack him either. Nyck de Vries making a strong case for being the worst driver on the grid.

Williams had to have expected better pace this weekend. The low downforce tracks suit their car. Good power, low drag, etc. Yet they just didn't have the pace, even at the hands of Albon who can often get a great result when the car is working.

Haas also didn't look very strong. Kevin Magnussen ended up finishing ahead of Hulkenberg. The team waiting as long as possible to pit him in hopes of a SC or red flag. Strategy didn't work out, but it may not have mattered.

Alpine performed even worse. They brought a very small, low downforce rear wing and the car was just flat out too slow. Ocon lead the DRS train for more than half the race, again hoping for a SC to salvage a shot for a point. Gasly had a weekend to forget. Many mistakes, too slow, and some bad luck.

Alfa Romeo had no shot at points. Again we have to recognize that Zhou was performing better than Bottas. No idea why he made so many pit stops.

Driver of the Day: Sergio Perez. Usually he is a good 4 tenths off Max's pace, so to outperform Verstappen and win the race, that deserves the DotD.

So you've noticed the trend as many have of Perez having the better of Max Verstappen, 3 time world champion, everytime we go to a street circuit.

Perez is a C-D tier driver at best.

Why is the narrative that this is something special from Perez as opposed to something absolutely mediocre from our 3 time world DRS champion wunderkid?

Street circuits are supposed to equalize and should somewhat neutralize an inferior chassis. So we see Leclerc outqualifying his teammate by 1 second, and Max gets beat and needs a toe to outqualify his C tier teammate?

In all my years, I've never seen a world class driver who can't handle a street circuit.

[SS454]

So you've noticed the trend as many have of Perez having the better of Max Verstappen, 3 time world champion, everytime we go to a street circuit.

Perez is a C-D tier driver at best.

Why is the narrative that this is something special from Perez as opposed to something absolutely mediocre from our 3 time world DRS champion wunderkid?

Street circuits are supposed to equalize and should somewhat neutralize an inferior chassis. So we see Leclerc outqualifying his teammate by 1 second, and Max gets beat and needs a toe to outqualify his C tier teammate?

In all my years, I've never seen a world class driver who can't handle a street circuit.

Perez being a street circuit phenom is a myth. Up until this recent race, he only won street circuit races because Verstappen had problems.
Baku 2021 - Max blows a tire while leading.
Monaco 2022 - Perez deliberately wrecks his car to secure pole while Verstappen was on a lap that would have likely taken pole.
Singapore 2022 - Verstappen was about to claim pole but had to pit because the team didn't put enough fuel in. Max had all sorts of drama in the race, and Perez eeked out a win over Leclerc.
Jedda 2023 - Max had a driveshaft failure and started 15th. Easily got up to 2nd place.

I guess ignore Max won Monaco 2021, 2nd in Jedda 2021 (crashed himself out of quali on one of his best ever laps), won Jedda 2022, won Baku 2022. Does Miami count as a street circuit? He won that too in 2022.

Maybe Verstappen isn't that bad on street circuits, especially since he won the last 3 (4 including Miami) where he didn't have some sort of issue.

[Greig]

Australia is also a "street" circuit and he won that, would agree that there is nothing to suggest Max is bad on street circuits really.

[jgonzalesm6]

Perez being a street circuit phenom is a myth. Up until this recent race, he only won street circuit races because Verstappen had problems.
Baku 2021 - Max blows a tire while leading.
Monaco 2022 - Perez deliberately wrecks his car to secure pole while Verstappen was on a lap that would have likely taken pole.
Singapore 2022 - Verstappen was about to claim pole but had to pit because the team didn't put enough fuel in. Max had all sorts of drama in the race, and Perez eeked out a win over Leclerc.
Jedda 2023 - Max had a driveshaft failure and started 15th. Easily got up to 2nd place.

I guess ignore Max won Monaco 2021, 2nd in Jedda 2021 (crashed himself out of quali on one of his best ever laps), won Jedda 2022, won Baku 2022. Does Miami count as a street circuit? He won that too in 2022.

Maybe Verstappen isn't that bad on street circuits, especially since he won the last 3 (4 including Miami) where he didn't have some sort of issue.

+1

Good write up!!!

[Cavallino]

Australia is also a "street" circuit and he won that, would agree that there is nothing to suggest Max is bad on street circuits really.

yeah, but by that definition isn't Spa a street circuit too? i think part of my definition requires walls that you can tap

[Cavallino]

Perez being a street circuit phenom is a myth. Up until this recent race, he only won street circuit races because Verstappen had problems.
Baku 2021 - Max blows a tire while leading.
Monaco 2022 - Perez deliberately wrecks his car to secure pole while Verstappen was on a lap that would have likely taken pole.
Singapore 2022 - Verstappen was about to claim pole but had to pit because the team didn't put enough fuel in. Max had all sorts of drama in the race, and Perez eeked out a win over Leclerc.
Jedda 2023 - Max had a driveshaft failure and started 15th. Easily got up to 2nd place.

I guess ignore Max won Monaco 2021, 2nd in Jedda 2021 (crashed himself out of quali on one of his best ever laps), won Jedda 2022, won Baku 2022. Does Miami count as a street circuit? He won that too in 2022.

Maybe Verstappen isn't that bad on street circuits, especially since he won the last 3 (4 including Miami) where he didn't have some sort of issue.

Wow, you're deliberately buying into the British media propoganda that Perez somehow deliberately tried to screw Max over.

Secondly, it's false that Max would have outqualified Perez in Monaco in 2022, let alone Charles, in 2022 or 2021.

[Cavallino]

If Ferrari has a chance to steal a race, it'll be in Monaco.

[jgonzalesm6]

Wow, you're deliberately buying into the British media propoganda that Perez somehow deliberately tried to screw Max over.

Secondly, it's false that Max would have outqualified Perez in Monaco in 2022, let alone Charles, in 2022 or 2021.

"while Verstappen was on a lap that would have likely taken pole"

[Cavallino]

"while Verstappen was on a lap that would have likely taken pole"

this is false
IN 2021, yes he was purple in the first sector, but it wasn't a special first sector, he was already faster than Charles in sector 1, and this new purple first sector he set wasn't faster by enough to take pole. So even being purple in sector 1, he'd have to find time in sectors 2 and 3. Probably like 2 tenths.

[SS454]

Wow, you're deliberately buying into the British media propoganda that Perez somehow deliberately tried to screw Max over.

Secondly, it's false that Max would have outqualified Perez in Monaco in 2022, let alone Charles, in 2022 or 2021.

No I have my own eyes and watched onboard telemetry. Going full throttle the middle of one of the slowest corners, completely different driving than he did all quali... that just doesnt make sense. Convenient since he had a slower s1 to his first lap. Meanwhile Max had a s1 PB and was certainly on his way to improving his lap. Perhaps Max wasn't going to beat Leclerc, or even Sainz, but he was definitely going to beat Perez's lap, unless he made his own mistake.

[Cavallino]

No I have my own eyes and watched onboard telemetry. Going full throttle the middle of one of the slowest corners, completely different driving than he did all quali... that just doesnt make sense. Convenient since he had a slower s1 to his first lap. Meanwhile Max had a s1 PB and was certainly on his way to improving his lap. Perhaps Max wasn't going to beat Leclerc, or even Sainz, but he was definitely going to beat Perez's lap, unless he made his own mistake.

Yeah, unfortunately we're talking about two different years.

Like in Baku, Leclerc, the real street circuit king, has back to back poles in Monaco.

Anyway, I've never heard anyone question that 2022 was Leclerc's pole.

2021 he got pole in Monaco in a literal truck. And what i'm talking about is the common misconception that Leclerc's crash prevented Verstappen from obviously getting pole. And this wasn't just my opinion, i remember the guys from The Race agreeing in their podcast after that race. Gary Anderson, in particular, so if he says it was a Ferrari pole, you know it has to be.

As for Perez deliberately trying to keep P2 in 2022, i know what you're talking about, he goes 100% full throttle, not progressive on the throttle at all. It's a really dumb mistake, but deliberate for a P2? I could be wrong about this one, if it was Max taking it from Charles I'd probably be saying it was deliberate. These are the best drivers, and they know you have to be progressive with the throttle, especially there. But how many spins like that did we see Vettel do by not being progressive enough with the throttle?

[SS454]

Yeah, unfortunately we're talking about two different years.

Like in Baku, Leclerc, the real street circuit king, has back to back poles in Monaco.

Anyway, I've never heard anyone question that 2022 was Leclerc's pole.

2021 he got pole in Monaco in a literal truck. And what i'm talking about is the common misconception that Leclerc's crash prevented Verstappen from obviously getting pole. And this wasn't just my opinion, i remember the guys from The Race agreeing in their podcast after that race. Gary Anderson, in particular, so if he says it was a Ferrari pole, you know it has to be.

As for Perez deliberately trying to keep P2 in 2022, i know what you're talking about, he goes 100% full throttle, not progressive on the throttle at all. It's a really dumb mistake, but deliberate for a P2? I could be wrong about this one, if it was Max taking it from Charles I'd probably be saying it was deliberate. These are the best drivers, and they know you have to be progressive with the throttle, especially there. But how many spins like that did we see Vettel do by not being progressive enough with the throttle?

I'm talkin 2022 only. I remember Red Bull making the claim Max was half a second up and going to get pole in 2021, but I never saw any evidence of it.

Back to Perez' spin. It was for p3. I'd love to have some answers to a lot of questions, but like you said, no progressive throttle at all. I totally understand why Max was super ****** about it, especially since Perez goes onto win the race, even though it was because Ferrari threw the race win for Leclerc away.

The point of it all is I don't think Perez is a street circuit specialist. Max likely wins every one of the races Perez won if it was a straight up fair normal weekend. As a matter of fact, Verstappen probably wins yesterday at Baku if the SC didn't benefit Perez. I maintain it was Perez' best win, but that is the truth. No chance Perez passes Max if he's in the lead after the SC.

[Cavallino]

I'm talkin 2022 only. I remember Red Bull making the claim Max was half a second up and going to get pole in 2021, but I never saw any evidence of it.

yeah, that's what i'm saying, he was a half second up, but he had that same half second advantage in the first sector on his previous flying lap and still was 2 tenths behind Leclrec by the end of the lap. He needed to find time elsewhere to get that pole, which he hadn't done in sectors 2 and 3 all weekend.

[Cavallino]

I'm talkin 2022 only. I remember Red Bull making the claim Max was half a second up and going to get pole in 2021, but I never saw any evidence of it.

Back to Perez' spin. It was for p3. I'd love to have some answers to a lot of questions, but like you said, no progressive throttle at all. I totally understand why Max was super ****** about it, especially since Perez goes onto win the race, even though it was because Ferrari threw the race win for Leclerc away.

The point of it all is I don't think Perez is a street circuit specialist. Max likely wins every one of the races Perez won if it was a straight up fair normal weekend. As a matter of fact, Verstappen probably wins yesterday at Baku if the SC didn't benefit Perez. I maintain it was Perez' best win, but that is the truth. No chance Perez passes Max if he's in the lead after the SC.

Yeah, but if it was a normal weekend, and it doesn't monsoon 5 minutes before the cars roll off, Leclerc walks away with that 2022 race. And probably 2021, it is Monaco afterall.

And some of this "bad luck" for Max is his own doing by getting outqualified. Yesterday, even without the safety car, Max was going to get passed by Perez the next lap, that's why they brought him in.

And we better get the news out to The Race about Perez not being a street specialist, because they just released a video of how he is the street circuit master.

[SS454]

And we better get the news out to The Race about Perez not being a street specialist, because they just released a video of how he is the street circuit master.

Because the media is a bunch of puppets that don't actually look into facts. It's a good story for the championship and a good story for one of the most popular drivers. Seems you have bought into it. The same media is trying to push that Perez actually has a chance against Verstappen in a full championship campaign. Did everyone forget he is typically 4+ tenths off his pace?

Like I said, the facts are if Max doesn't have issues in all those races, he wins every single one of them and Perez gets credit for a few podiums that nobody remembers. Though give him some credit, he does seem to have a very good record and his pace is good around Baku.

[Cavallino]

Because the media is a bunch of puppets that don't actually look into facts. It's a good story for the championship and a good story for one of the most popular drivers. Seems you have bought into it. The same media is trying to push that Perez actually has a chance against Verstappen in a full championship campaign. Did everyone forget he is typically 4+ tenths off his pace?

well this is spot on. they're desperate for a story to keep the DTS sheeple on board. When this is a typical F1 season. 2021s are the anomaly.

[Cavallino]

Because the media is a bunch of puppets that don't actually look into facts. It's a good story for the championship and a good story for one of the most popular drivers. Seems you have bought into it. The same media is trying to push that Perez actually has a chance against Verstappen in a full championship campaign. Did everyone forget he is typically 4+ tenths off his pace?

Like I said, the facts are if Max doesn't have issues in all those races, he wins every single one of them and Perez gets credit for a few podiums that nobody remembers. Though give him some credit, he does seem to have a very good record and his pace is good around Baku.

that's what i'm trying to say though, it's either something mediocre with Max or special about Perez. I too, am picking the former.

[racingbradley]

that's what i'm trying to say though, it's either something mediocre with Max or special about Perez. I too, am picking the former.

The romantic in me would like to think that Perez has got the better of Max and will be able to challenge him for the championship.
But I would rather Ferrari finds a quick fix to our problems and we are in there causing RB a bit of head scratching.
I can dream but will unfortunately probably come down to earth this weekend.

[Cavallino]

The romantic in me would like to think that Perez has got the better of Max and will be able to challenge him for the championship.
But I would rather Ferrari finds a quick fix to our problems and we are in there causing RB a bit of head scratching.
I can dream but will unfortunately probably come down to earth this weekend.

best to wait for the updates that are due for the start of the European leg of the season.

[JChan]

I hope Ferrari can find the potential of the car so that RB will unleased the beast (at least we can see the true difference without hiding) no more turn 1 notch like Merc used to do before.