Formula One has arrived in Azerbaijan for the first grand prix on the new Baku City Circuit.
At six kilometres, the track is the second longest lap of the year after Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. Among its distinctive features are a very narrow section as it passes through the old city and the high-speed run back towards the start/finish area.
Explore the circuit turn-by-turn with the interactive guide below. Click each image for high-resolution version.
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Over to you
What are your first impressions of the Baku City Circuit? Have your say in the comments.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
16th June 2016, 12:42
Please, @keithcollantine, correct that track map below. You keep using it despite it showing the old Turn 2-Turn 3-Turn 4 arrangement with the shorter second DRS zone and longer gap between Turns 1-2 and 3-4.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
16th June 2016, 12:42
*shorter gap, sorry
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
16th June 2016, 13:23
@atticus-2 I don’t follow you: the DRS zones aren’t indicated on the map.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
16th June 2016, 13:47
@keithcollantine I meant the shorter straight between Turns 2 and 3. (Where the DRS zone will be anyway.)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
16th June 2016, 16:40
@atticus-2 Ah I see – have changed it now. Thanks.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
16th June 2016, 17:09
@keithcollantine Almost good – now it’s just that they take a street one intersection up so that they turn left one intersection later for Turn 2. KaIIe’s link below is rather illustrative.
Sorry, I’ve made a mess explaining it. :/
Atticus (@atticus-2)
16th June 2016, 13:52
In other words, the latest design makes the drivers take the left-hander at Turn 2 one intersection later and also take the next left-hander at Turn 3 one intersection later. (The first modification makes the short straight between Turns 1 and 2 and also between Turn 3 and 4 longer while the second lengthens the straight between Turns 2 and 3.)
KaIIe (@kaiie)
16th June 2016, 16:00
The changes are clearly visible here: https://www.bakucitycircuit.com/event-guide/circuit-map
Pyon (@pyon)
16th June 2016, 13:06
90 degres turn all the time, let see how it goes but 8 to 12 seems to be the only interesting part on paper.
Ashwin (@redbullf1)
16th June 2016, 14:13
Yes fully qualified for a Formula E race.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
16th June 2016, 16:49
@redbullf1
Implying that a Formula E car would actually last down a 2.2 km straight without draining the battery within a few laps.
CarWars (@maxv)
17th June 2016, 5:52
They can change cars on the straight, pits are there, every lap ;)
glynh (@glynh)
16th June 2016, 13:34
Of all the newer tracks this is the one I’ve most looked forward to. It’s nice to see a design that doesn’t follow the normal pattern.
Baku has pretty much everything I look for in a track – fast, little run off, narrow and wide sections, a variety of corners and all in an interesting location. Hopefully the race lives up to that.
Yoseph
16th June 2016, 15:02
Kudos to you Keith and team, amazing dedication. Thank you for the wonderful illustration.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
16th June 2016, 15:35
You’re welcome on behalf of me and my team (which on this occasion is just me!)
Xusen (@xusen)
16th June 2016, 18:57
@keithcollantine
Excellent work Keith, this site is the best, I check it on a hourly basis*, you certainly got the name right, Fanatics :P
I miss Google reader, it used to save me refreshing my favourite sites, just came across theoldreader today, seems like a decent replacement, already subscribed to the RSS feed.
HUHHII (@huhhii)
16th June 2016, 16:09
There’s also an on-board video from this track driven by Jolyon Palmer and Daniel Ricciardo in F1 2016 on F1 Games from Codemasters FB page. Gives nice indication of how the track’ll be like.
DaveW (@dmw)
16th June 2016, 18:09
This is a cool feature. Seems that 12-15 is the only real place to make up time. Everywhere else is just slam on gas, slam on the brakes, turn, repeat. 13 seems like the only proper “mid-speed” corner where you can make time with more car confidence and finesse. And with low DF, it will be a challenge to carry a lot of speed through to 15. I don’t see much percentage in hustling the car through the castle section—too narrow and too slow. This is basically a raw power circuit. A big Norisring.
I predict that Mercedes is going to hang about 1.5s on the field in qualifying. I predict an FI and/or Williams on the podium too. This may also be a good place for Hamilton to change components and take his eventual grid-drop, because the Mercedes is going to look like the Millennium Falcon here and he will be able to pass even the upgraded Ferraris here with ease.
MarkM
16th June 2016, 20:25
I think 18 and 19 will separate the boys from the men… Looks like full throttle, and we’ll see who has the guts to do it at full throttle.
Hans (@hanswes)
16th June 2016, 18:48
Still don’t like all the 90-degree turns.
MarkM
16th June 2016, 20:22
To me this looks like a very scary track, very high speeds and closed concrete walls don’t mix very well.
I know we have Singapore but this for some reason seems like the speeds will be tremendous. Plus how many 90 degree turns do you need anyway, pretty boring it seems. Looks like most passing will be done by DRS,
soulmonkey
16th June 2016, 20:52
+1
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
16th June 2016, 21:41
Argggh. If ever DRS was not necessary! Longest straight of the year!
Gary
16th June 2016, 21:51
Keke Rosberg would take turn 19 flat out in a Newman Budweiser Lola T333 CS Spyder. Not so sure about Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
16th June 2016, 22:53
Thank you, this is very interesting!
schooner (@schooner)
17th June 2016, 0:41
I still can’t get my head around the super tight and twisty bit between the castle walls. To my eyes it has trouble written all over it, and I will be surprised if we don’t hear a lot of noise from the drivers about that section.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
17th June 2016, 1:36
This looks absolutely horrible. It’s so dull, except 2 corners which stand out from the rest of the track. The first bit of the track reminds me of Korea’s first half of the track: 3 massive straights with tight corners.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
17th June 2016, 1:46
Also, they created one of the longest straights in the world,a nd they still felt the need to put not 1 but 2 DRS zones with only 1 Activation point.
This race is going to suck. I can feel it.
bosyber (@bosyber)
17th June 2016, 6:24
Would already be a lot better if they only had DRS on that shorter backstraight between T2-T3 @fer-no65; It is one of the things they promised with DRS ‘tuning it to tracks need’, but never actually do, to make it any less worse.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
17th June 2016, 5:18
This is a great feature..it gives an idea of what to expect at which corner…the concerns voiced by the drivers are absolutely correct and there is high probability of red flag in both practice and qualifying and even in race. Turns 7,8,9,10 looks good on photographs…but may result in an incident. If a car clips the wall at turn 10, or if there is a spin in the narrow section, there is little scope of a quick recovery. Safety cars could come out in the race and there could be laps lost in procession. Pit lane entry is also another concern area.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
17th June 2016, 7:10
Not a fan, at all, but two positives it seems. First of all, there is little room for error, not too much run off. Which I think is unquestionably a good thing as long as safety is still ok, which I assume is the case here. Secondly, there is a lot of possibility (the way I see it) for overtaking. Nobody is a big fan of 90 degree corners but they are corners, generally, that are suitable for overtaking moves. See Singapore for instance. That last sector is one big drafting sector, so the first sector will have cars close together, and with 90 degree corners, I can see quite a few dicing battles going one way the one corner and back the next. Or I am being optimistic.
sean
17th June 2016, 8:33
Looks like this turned out to be as horrible as i expected since it has been announced…
Why they had to DRS the main straight is beyond me, it could have been nice to have som slipstream battles over there, still… doesn’t surprise me, but if there’s only 1 activation point, that’s ridiculous, with the second DRS straight, they’ll be able to pull even further..
Also the some of the corners are just trouble waiting to happen, exit of T1 looks like it could become a big bottleneck at the start, and T6 (? – the slow right hander) seems stupidly tight, on the other hand, it may be a nice challenge.
and that pit entry…
I’ll be glad if i’m proven wrong during the weekend, but to me the track seems dull and dangerous at the same time..
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
17th June 2016, 8:40
Watching gp2 fp1 now, and it is quite nice the track.
It is a bit of monaco. And a bit of canada all mixed up.
Can hardly wait to see the race… On monday.
Martin
17th June 2016, 8:44
Given the nature of the pit straight surely this track is going to have the highest penalty for pitting of any track? I think it’s going to be very interesting strategy wise, especially with the chance to pit under a SC or VSC
Palindnilap (@palindnilap)
17th June 2016, 8:51
I tried a few laps on a sim with a 1991 F1 car. It was probably missing some of the bumps or small elevation changes. The 5-6 chicane was not easy to get right. The narrow section at turns 8-11 was good fun. Turn 13 was rewarding, and the combination of 18-19 was absolutely daunting (and gorgeous). The rest of the track, not too interesting.
Now the problem is that they are going to race it with much more grip, so they probably won’t even notice turn 13, and 18-19 could be flat out. If not, certainly they will be next year : an example where the faster is not necessarily the better. And speaking about that, as others mentioned, the first DRS zone is very dumb.