2024 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Highlights

Scuderia Ferrari HP leaves the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a sense of what might have been, as the closing stages of the race at the Baku City Circuit did not go the way the team would have liked. 

It had looked as though both cars would finish on the podium after Carlos Sainz had just moved up to third place on the penultimate lap, but a collision with Sergio Perez wiped it out. Charles Leclerc, starting from pole, finished second behind Oscar Piastri, picking up 18 points, but even this was tinged with disappointment as, after making his only pit stop of the afternoon, it seemed that victory was within his grasp. Nevertheless, the team can take some satisfaction from a solid job done throughout the weekend, which confirms the progress made in terms of performance, which will have to be put to good use in a few days’ time in Singapore.

Carlos Sainz #55

It’s a real shame. The important thing is that Checo (Perez) and I are okay after the crash, but it’s frustrating. I stayed on the regular racing line and didn’t do anything strange, like every other lap, so I didn’t expect the contact on my rear tyre. It’s part of racing, but it hurts, and we lost many points today. I was having an excellent race and was very quick. P3 or even P2 would’ve been possible, but it is what it is—time to turn the page and focus on Singapore.

Charles Leclerc #16

We lost the victory based on two factors today. The first was tyre management on our out-lap from the pits. We expected it to take a long time for everyone to warm up their tyres, which was the case for our car, but not for McLaren, who got their tyres up to temperature immediately and gained a lot of time there. The second was not fighting Oscar harder when he overtook him. I knew we had a long race ahead, and my target was to look after my tyres, stay within DRS range and overtake him later down the line. However, we underestimated their speed on the straights today, running a lower downforce package than us, making them too fast to overtake them. Overall, it wasn’t the best day for our team, but we now head to Singapore and will return stronger.

Frédéric Vasseur – Team Principal

The first part of the race went very well for Charles, and his pace was great. Then we need to analyze the laps immediately after his pit stop as the pace proved too slow, and in the end, he had no tyres left anyway. Probably, we were a bit too conservative at the start of the second stint, but having to drive in dirty air was difficult for Charles, and the result was it damaged the tyres. We will review everything carefully. As for the incident with Carlos and Checo (Perez), they were side by side at the start of the straight leading to turn three, and they both wanted to keep in Charles’ slipstream. Checo had plenty of space on his left side and did not move at all, while Carlos had no room on his right side. We left Baku with a result below expectations, but it was good to see that, as in Monza, we were fighting with McLaren and were competitive. We need to keep the focus and continue fighting, as many more races are to go.

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