Mercedes Reveals High Unpredictability Levels At Upcoming 'Unusual' Baku Street Race

Saajan Jogia | Sep 10, 2024

May 4, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (44) during F1 qualifying for Miami Grand Prix at Miami International Autodrome. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-Imagn Images / Peter Casey-Imagn Images

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has cautioned about the unpredictability of the upcoming Azerbaijan GP at the Baku City Circuit. He noted that with the top four cars closely matching in performance, predicting who will qualify best is challenging given the circuit's unusual nature.

The 2024 season has seen the emergence of Mercedes and McLaren as serious challengers to Red Bull's championship lead, alongside Ferrari's strong revival after the opening Grands Prix. McLaren has been the most consistent threat, trailing Red Bull by just 8 points in the Constructors' Championship, while Max Verstappen's lead over Lando Norris in the Drivers' Standings has narrowed to 62 points.

Shovlin confirmed that the nature of the track is Mercedes-friendly but ruled out a clear advantage considering the tiny performance gaps to rival cars. Explaining the situation ahead of the race weekend at Baku, he told the media:

"Baku’s always been a really difficult circuit to guess where you’re going to fall in the order.

"The other issue you’ve got this year is any given track you can end up with at least three if not four teams all within a tenth or two of each other, that makes it very hard to predict where they're all going to fall in qualifying and where people will stack out in race pace.

"We would expect McLaren to be quick, we’ve also seen Ferrari recently put in some strong performance and you’d never ever discount Red Bull."

What makes Baku unique is a tight, slow-speed sector two that abruptly changes to a long, high-speed straight. He added:

"It is challenging but Baku is an unusual circuit because you’ve got this really tight, twisty, very low speed sector two, and then this really long straight.

"It requires a relatively low wing level, that isn’t what you’d normally have with all those low-speed corners, but you’ve got to have it with the long straight.

"It’s also a weekend where you can get a lot of incidents affecting the race, it’s very easy if a driver makes a mistake there that will have to bring out a safety car in order to clear it up."

Shovlin confirmed that Mercedes will tackle the remaining eight races with the same approach that proved successful at tracks like the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone, and Spa-Francorchamps. He said:

"We haven’t been pleased with our last couple of weekends, we’re aiming higher than that.

"We were hoping to start this final part of the season in the same manner that we finished with a few race wins and some strong qualifying and all of our effort is going into trying to get the maximum performance and trying to get back to weekends where we can come back pleased with the job we’ve done, hopefully come back with some trophies."