Friday in Baku was one where enough happened. With only free practice and qualifying following, drivers had little time for practice on a circuit where confidence is key and margins are slim. It is therefore not surprising that there was enough communication on the on-board radios, including red flags and a burning engine. F1Maximum has listed the best ones.
The first time we heard a driver over the on-board radio it was George Russell who spoke up, he was having problems with the brakes. “The track is a bit slippery at the moment, braking is not going well.” His teammate Lewis Hamilton followed not much later, although he blamed his car. “Brake pedal feels long and passive.” And Charles Leclerc also had problems with brakes, but his brakes were just a little too much for him. “Right front brake is quite hot.”
Then it was the engineers’ turn to tell their drivers something. However, these were not positive messages. “We have a flat tire, Yuki,” Yuki had to hear Tsunoda, while things didn’t get any better for Gasly either. ‘Avoid shifting’, he was told, after which his engine would go up in smoke not much later.
Aston Martin also made itself heard during the first free practice. Lance Stroll was not happy with a colleague, to say the least: “Fuck Zhou! He’s in my way!’ Teammate Fernando Alonso mainly had problems with his own car. “The DRS won’t open.” A mistake that the driver could do nothing about. Drivers who could do something about their mistakes were Logan Sargeant and Oscar Piastri. The Williams driver was busy blocking his tires, ‘I blocked my front tires a lot. The tires are okay, but square braked. Ugh!’, while the Australian took it a little too far. “I just hit the wall a little bit in turn fifteen.”
Red, and more red
Taking things a little too far was no longer the case for Nyck de Vries at the start of Q1. The Dutchman took way too much speed into the corner and crashed into the wall. ‘Oh my god…Aaaahhh’, was his meaningless yet eloquent response. In the meantime, that gave Max Verstappen the opportunity to do something about his material, because that was not quite right. ‘Can we take a look at my headrest? I feel like I’m lying down more.’
Shortly after the red flag was lifted for De Vries, things went wrong again. This time it was Gasly, who also had no happy practice, who also failed to reach turn three and caused another red flag. “Sorry, I blocked the front, I couldn’t stop the car,” he said. The crash was not appreciated by his fellow drivers, as Sargeant had to abort his lap. “Damn, I was on a good lap again.”
Leclerc takes pole at sunset
Meanwhile, the sunset started to play a major role and Leclerc asked for a different visor. ‘Can a darker visor be used?’, but unfortunately that question had to be answered negatively for him, because he already had the darkest variant in it. “The sun is getting lower and lower, that’s annoying,” Verstappen then also commented, who indicated that he could continue. “It’s okay, but just annoying.”
From Q2 it became significantly quieter on the on-board radio. Carlos Sainz said he was having a hard time. ‘Struggling with these tyres’ while Russell was sadly disappointed when asked if he had made it to Q3. “Ahh damn, we don’t have the speed this weekend guys, another chance tomorrow.” Who was happier, and then in Q3, was Leclerc. The Monegask took pole and thanked his team. “Thanks for everything guys, the car was good. He was really good. It’s good to be back on top.’
