2023 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix highlights

Scuderia Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari leaves Baku having secured its first podium finish of the season courtesy of Charles Leclerc’s third place. The team also got its best points total of the year so far, thanks to the ten scored by fifth-placed Carlos Sainz. The podium is a morale booster for Leclerc and, indeed, for the whole team and a reward for all the hard work this weekend and over the past few weeks, highlighting the progress made with the SF-23. It is clear from qualifying and race performance that development is going in the right direction, even if there is still much to do to fight for the win.

The race. The race was not very eventful: Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez made the most of their straight-line speed to get ahead of Charles, and almost the entire field pitted for the compulsory tyre change when the Safety Car came out following Nick de Vries’ accident on lap 10. That’s what Charles and Carlos did, with the mechanics performing a perfect double stop in 2.4 and 2.9 seconds, respectively, the drivers rejoining in second and fourth, respectively. At the restart, Verstappen had dropped to third after pitting just before the Safety Car, but he passed Leclerc while Fernando Alonso got ahead of Carlos. From then on, nothing changed for the Scuderia duo. In the closing stages, with his tyres clearly able to get to the chequered flag without any problem, Charles was lapping in similar times to Perez and Verstappen, fighting for the fastest race lap while keeping the gap to Alonso. Carlos had Lewis Hamilton tailing him for the second part of the race, but the Englishman could never attack.

The next stop is the USA. The season’s pace is picking up, with the championship resuming next Sunday with Round 5, the Miami Grand Prix.

Carlos Sainz #55

This has been a very difficult weekend. P5 brings home some points, but I must put my hand up and admit I lacked confidence under braking, and the pace was not there. I could push a bit more on the Medium tyre, but with the harder compound, I didn’t feel the car. Now I look forward to a reset, as Miami is just around the corner, and I can’t wait to jump in the car again and keep pushing.

Charles Leclerc #16

We are still not quite there regarding race pace, and we know that’s what we have to work on the most. We maximised every session throughout the weekend and couldn’t have done anything differently, so that’s something to be happy about, and the team did a great job. We must focus on race pace and tyre management and push to make even more progress in the coming races.

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal

Overall, this has been a positive weekend for the team. We took two pole positions and one podium finish with Charles, and our overall points total, thanks also to Carlos’ fifth place, is satisfactory. There were signs of progress in Melbourne, but the poor race result overshadowed them. In the four-week break, we worked hard in Maranello, and here in Baku, we have made further progress, translating into a good result.

We definitely are back to where we wanted to be regarding qualifying, but there’s still a significant gap to Red Bull in the race. However, we aim to fight them for the win and are gearing up to do just that. It’s a morale booster for the whole team to finish on the podium, which we will carry forward as we prepare for next weekend’s race in Miami.

Scuderia Ferrari best pictures:

1 – GP AZERBAIJAN F1/2023 – GIOVEDI’ 27/04/2023

2023 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP, a third place for Charles Leclerc.

2023 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP, Frederic Vasseur, Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal.

2023 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP

2023 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP

2023 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP

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