A thin list of upgrades brought to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix Brake Cooling Fine Adjustment Headline.
The long straights of the Baku City circuit in the first and third sectors lead to some of the largest brake zones in the calendar. The driver washes from 205 mph to 75 mph to 130 mph on the first turn. Drivers experience 5G on both turn 1 and turn 3.
Ferrari tackles high brake demands with a larger front brake duct outlet, where this circuit is specially made to improve brake cooling.
Charles Leclerc claimed the final four Bakupole positions of Ferrari and Sprint poles in 2023, but Monegascu has yet to win races in any format on this track.
Racing Bulls brings circuit-specific brake upgrades this weekend, changing the front and rear brake ducts of the car “increasing cooling flow to meet circuit requirements.”
Red Bull Racing applies upgrades that are independent of the specific demand for the truck, bringing a recycled inboard assembly to the rear wing of the RB21. The team describes it as a “mild” upgrade that increases downforce without damaging the stability of the airflow behind the car.
Red Bull Racing relies on the floor upgrades Max Verstappen brought to Monza, where race dominated the race, to improve his performance in Baku. The team was uncompetitive in both rounds last year, and qualified a 30-second qualifying round from the pace of the 2024 Azerbaijan race. Verstappen finished fifth, but Sergio Perez could have finished on the podium if it wasn’t due to a late crash with Carlos Sainz.
Mercedes also brought about a revised front wing featuring a shorter cord, namely a front wing flap with a distance between the leading edge and trail edge. The team says the change will reduce downforce in the modified portion of the front wing to improve the balance of the car when equipped with a low downforce rear wing.
Despite Bakutrak’s twisted mid-domain, the teams have generally installed the car in low downforce, as they can get time to acquire a long flat-out blast between turn 16 and the first brake zone of turn 1.
McLaren, Aston Martin, Alpine, Haas, Williams and Sauber did not declare any new components for the race this weekend.