A mixture of wide and open and tight and twisty. The lonnnnng main straight along the Baku shoreline is a slipstreaming mecca, and with cars able to run three abreast into Turn 1, the action often looks more IndyCar than F1. However from there, the track loops around into the city’s narrow, winding Icheri Sheher old town, dramatically wending past Baku’s medieval city walls.
While Singapore is now recognised as a spectacular showpiece event and Monaco provides the sport's historical glamour, Baku has established its own unique identity in just three years on the calendar. It has a growing reputation that is in some ways inconsistent with the abilities that drivers typically need to handle a street track.
It comes as no surprise that several of the most dramatic and contentious moments of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix so far have occurred on the longest straight of the entire Formula 1 season. Baku's main straight, or, to be more accurate, a curved flat-out 1.2-mile segment all the way from Turns 16 to Turn 1, presents drivers with opportunity and risk in equal measure because cars can reach high speeds of more than 200 mph on it.
Baku has a spotless history of defying the accepted trend in an age where the F1 podium has been dominated by just three teams.
In fact, Azerbaijan has hosted the last three podium finishes that haven't been won by a Mercedes, Ferrari, or Red Bull driver. Sergio Perez placed third for Force India in 2016, Lance Stroll placed third for Williams in 2017, and Perez once again achieved this feat in 2018. Mistakes are severely penalised because to the lack of obstacles and the small run-off spaces, especially in the wavy middle of the lap.
In Baku's most recent two races, seven drivers have retired, and all of those DNFs from 2018 were due to collisions or vehicle damage.
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