SENT TO BAKU
The drivers walk the circuit, like every Thursday. It is a tradition that helps them memorize the route and discover its little secrets. And that this time made them run into a new problem: the strong wind, gusts of 50 kilometers per hour that lash the boulevards of Baku cordoned off for the car weekend.
The capital of Azerbaijan boasts the fastest city track in the world, with Bottas’ record peak of 368 kilometers per hour in a Mercedes: 2200 meters with the accelerator pressed along the shores of the Caspian Sea. “We missed that too,” a technician from AlphaTauri lets slip. The wind is lateral, strong and discontinuous. It is a problem that adds to the traditional difficulties of this “citizen” who also has very slow corners: if he could, a driver would choose for half of the track the unloaded wings that work in Monza and for the other half those used two weeks ago in Montecarlo. A compromise is needed.
«Forget Montecarlo, here we will return to what we were before». Leclerc is back on pole in the Principality (“we have shown that we are fast”) and on the mistake that prevented him from participating in the race and prepares the new challenge for third place behind Red Bull and Mercedes. Ferrari could take advantage of the wind (free today at 10.30 and 14), which does not disturb its strong point: agility in slow corners.
The situation is more difficult for Mercedes, which had already suffered from the desert wind in Bahrain, and now has to face the Bottas case as well. In Monte Carlo the Finnish driver was forced to retire, because the nut on the right front wheel broke during the pit stop. Mercedes accused Bottas of not having stopped at the exact spot for the tire change. The Finnish driver denied: «I was 2-3 centimeters out of position, when the average is 10-15. I had already told the team that I am worried about pit stops ». –
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