Perez Wins Baku's Main Race

A sublime drive by the Mexican, as he gets his 5th street-circuit win. Verstappen finished second, and Leclerc completed the podium.

Perez won his second race of the season. | Credit: Red Bull

A Red Bull win was a matter of who, rather than when. The race was going to be for Verstappen or Perez. The last place on the podium was the one in question. Fortunately for Ferrari, Leclerc managed to secure 3rd place behind a calculating Alonso, who finished 4th.

Leclerc had a good starting run and managed to hold his position until DRS was enabled by race control. First came Verstappen, then came Perez. Before the 6th lap was over, Leclerc was already relegated to 3rd place.

Tire management was going to be a battle until the end for the Monegasque. Sainz on the other hand had his share of troubles with Hamilton, but Mercedes' straight line speed deficit forbade the British driver to get 5th.

To pit or not to pit

De Vries hit the wall and broke his suspension around the first pit window. A Virtual Safety Car was deployed and Red Bull pitted Verstappen, who was leading the race. Unfortunately, race control deployed the Safety Car a little later, so it meant that Perez was going to benefit hugely from this.

The Mexican did an unvoluntary undercut and gained 1st place. Verstappen was second, and Leclerc third. From there on, the race was 'over'. The Dutch driver could not get too close to Perez, and was complaining of differential and engine break issues. His car was loose on the rear end, and clipped the wall more times than he wanted.

Perez was also going over the limits and had a few clippings with the wall as well. Turn 15 proved to be too difficult for drivers pushing to find extra tenths of a second per lap.

DRS does not work

Overtaking became impossible during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, considering the track has a couple of very long straights and heavy breaking 90-degree corners. Verstappen could not overtake Perez; Hamilton had the same problem against Sainz, and Alonso shared the same fate when challenging Leclerc.

It seems that cars can only get too close before overheating the brakes, over-degrading the tires, and more importantly, lose a lot of front-wing aero. DRS is not able to help with overtaking, and certainly, Baku disappointed.

Overall, the race had very few overtakes, and not a lot of action happened at the top. The middle and back of the grid did not have too much action as well.

Everyone hates pitstops

Drivers could not wait to get rid of the medium tires in order to fit the hard compound. Every team had the same strategy: Make it to the end after the pit window.

Pitting is too bothersome for teams; they rather manage the tires to avoid it. | Credit: Ferrari

This results in a combination of racing and managing. Drivers are not pushing all the time; they are managing tires. Drivers do not take unnecessary risks, so overtaking is not something they are looking forward to. If they do, they will cook the tires, meaning they would have to stop one more time.

Formula WEC

F1 feels like WEC during the Toyota days. Red Bull is in a league of their own, and no one can even come close to them. Since Formula 1 does not have Balance of Power (BoP), we will continue to see Red Bull winning races if reliability issues are not present.

Red Bull has won every single race since the championship started, and it does not look like anyone can challenge them. Both Red Bull drivers are mentally strong and usually avoid getting into trouble with each other.

We have yet to see them battle head-to-head, like in the Rosberg-Hamilton days. Usually, it is one of the 'bulls' that has significantly better pace during the race. Despite this, I am sure that Red Bull will take corresponding measures to avoid an internal conflict in a championship that it is 'theirs to lose'.

Two for each

Verstappen and Perez share 2 wins each. This is fantastic for Red Bull as a team since they are almost 100 points over Aston Martin with just 4 races. Looks like the team from Milton Keynes will celebrate the Constructors' Championship earlier than expected.

Perez is a specialist in street circuits, looks like he is more comfortable than Verstappen when it comes to driving closer to the wall. The next race is on another street circuit, Miami. Let's see if Perez can make a statement and win the race in the United States.

Here are the results of the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.