Heading to Baku to the first of the remaining ‘fly away’ venues, which will take us through to the end of the season, all the talk was about Adrian Newey joining Aston Martin, following the announcement which was made on 10th September. The link to the official press release is here: Adrian Newey begins new chapter with Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team - Aston Martin F1 Team and I will cover this more in the October edition of AM Monthly. Notwithstanding the news about Adrian, the Team had some confidence that the Baku street circuit would suit the characteristics of the AMR24. The circuit, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, has numerous 90-degree corners & the walls & barriers are very close, especially in the tight, twisty section through the magnificent Old City. Therefore it is very unforgiving if the drivers make any mistakes & there are always incidents which, conversely, present opportunities. The long main straight & lack of long corners, allowing one to be at full throttle for 85% of the circuit, were expected to play to the strengths of the AMR24, hopefully enough to be at the front of the midfield cars. The team won its first trophy in Baku, when Sebastian Vettel came 2nd in the race in 2021. Also Lance Stroll achieved his 1st podium at this circuit, when he came 3rd in the race in 2017, while it was still known as Racing Point.
When FP1 got underway on the Friday, the track which was quite dusty, had drivers complaining about the low grip levels & that leaves that were littering the track. There was then a short halt to the session, to clear debris that had been left on the track from a support race earlier. Finally the AMs were able to get going and, 20 minutes into the session, Alonso was P12 & Stroll P17. Midway through the session, Leclerc brought proceedings to a halt when he clipped the dirt on the outside of the approach to a corner & slid into the wall, bringing out the red flags and ending his session. After the Ferrari was cleared & the session restarted, out came the green machines, but they appeared to be struggling with Alonso only managing 14th & Stroll 16th. Moments later, Colapinto, in a Williams, couldn’t contain a little snap from his car & he slid into the wall. That brought out the red flags for the 3rd time. The session restarted with 10 minutes to go & we learned from the team radio that Alonso had a plastic bag stuck to his halo! Despite that he managed to record a top speed of 200mph down the main straight, equal highest with Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. When the chequered flag came out after an hour, Alonso was in P7, Stroll, expressing dissatisfaction with the balance of his AMR24, was in P13. When FP2 got underway a few hours later, the majority of the drivers were quick to head out on track, to get back to their planned testing and experimenting with a variety of runs carried out on Pirelli’s hard, medium and soft tyres, due to FP1 being so interrupted with stoppages. Halfway through the session Alonso was in P8, with Stroll P17. When the team brought in Alonso a lot of fine-tuning adjustments were made before he was released again, obviously feeling that they could improve on Stroll’s time, who had moved up to 5th with 20 minutes to go. However, he couldn’t match Stroll’s pace and this time it ended up Stroll in P7 & Alonso P11, half a second slower than Stroll.
The following day, FP3 began in warm conditions, but again the session had to be red flagged after 15 minutes, when Ocon’s Alpine just came to a halt on track at the end of the pit exit. It took 10 minutes to remove the car and get underway again & when it did Alonso posted the 8th fastest time, Stroll the 12th. Then there had to be a further stoppage, when teenager Ollie Bearman, standing in for Kevin Magnussen, smashed his Haas up after misjudging his entry into the 1st turn & hitting the barriers. There was another brief stoppage to remove the car & then the session got underway again. With 5 mins to go Stroll was 9th & Alonso 10th, but at the end Alonso managed to just get ahead of Stroll, as did Tsunoda, meaning the AM pair were P11, for Alonso & P13 for Stroll. We were treated to Qualifying starting in glorious sunshine & it was anybody’s guess as to which driver would qualify in pole position. Both drivers made a solid start & after the first set of runs, Alonso was 9th & Stroll 13th. Going out last& crossing the finish line as late as possible in Q1 was key, due to high track evolution in the first part of Qualifying, but with 3 mins to go both drivers were firmly in the elimination zone. However, both of them made it through into Q2 – Stroll temporarily hauling himself up to 9th, but ended up 13th, Alonso, right on the cusp, in 15th. In Q2, Alonso initially put himself 12th but Stroll could only manage 15th, despite recording 199mph down the main straight. They both came in for new tyres & out they went to set flying laps. They couldn’t improve their positions the 1st time around & stayed 12th & 15th, but Alonso managed to go round again & this time he put his car 5th & safely into Q3. Stroll was 15th & thus eliminated. On his 1st run in Q3, Alonso put the car in P7, but over time other drivers improved their time & with 5 mins to go he was pushed down to last (10th). As Alonso headed out for his final run, he had a stroke of luck as Albon, in an annoyingly fast Williams, was released from the garage with the airbox fan still attached to his car, so he had to stop. This allowed Alonso to qualify 8th and with a reasonable chance of securing some points come the race. Leclerc, in a Ferrari, qualified on pole.
Before the start of the race on Sunday, there were to be further changes to the grid positions. Gasly was disqualified from Qualifying, as during scrutineering his Alpine was deemed to be over the fuel flow limit. And Hamilton would start at the back of the Grid, following new power unit elements being fitted into his engine (in the event he opted for a pit lane start). This would put Alonso up to start 7th & Stroll 13th. The cars formed the Grid in gorgeous sunshine again and everyone got clean away from the start (unlike the F2 race that had started with carnage off the start some hours earlier). Alonso held station during the lap but Stroll seemed to make some progress & was aiming to get past Tsunoda for 11th place, when he tagged the right-rear of the RB car & picked up a puncture. Stroll limped back to the pits, relegated to the rear of the field. He was sent out with new tyres with the aim of doing the best that he could & maximising damage limitation. But there hadn’t been any progress for either driver by lap 10 – Alonso was still 7th, Stroll 20th. Alonso then came into the pits quite early, on lap 12 & came out 14th. Other drivers started coming in for their fresh tyres over the next few laps & Alonso moved up a place & then to 10th after Tsunoda had to retire his car on lap 16. Stroll meanwhile, was 18th. A lap later Alonso passed Gasly & was up to 9th. Upfront, a major tussle was taking place, as gradually Piastri started to reel in the race leader, Leclerc & out braked him into the 1st turn on lap 20 for the lead. However, Piastri wasn’t able to race off into the distance & for most of the remaining laps the top 3 drivers, Piastri, Leclerc, Perez were only a couple of seconds apart. Alonso was in a solitary place, 9 seconds behind Russell & 2 seconds ahead of Colapinto. On lap 23 Stroll came into the pits for another set of fresh tyres & came out 19th. At the halfway stage of the race Alonso was still in 9th & Stroll 19th. With under 20 laps to go, Albon came in for fresh tyres, promoting Alonso up to 8th and Stroll also managed to move up a place benefiting from another driver’s late pitstop. But with 5 laps to go it was Stroll’s turn to come back into the garage, permanently this time, when he encountered an issue with his brake pedal. However, the outcome of the race wasn’t final yet. On the penultimate lap, Sainz, who had just caught & passed Perez & was battling with him down one of the straights, got their wheels interlocked, which got them to converge and sent violently into the concrete wall, littering debris all over the track and forcing Race Control to end the race under the Virtual Safety Car. This allowed Piastri to win the race and for McLaren to take the lead of the Constructors World Championship for the first time in a decade! It also meant that Alonso finished in 6th place and secured a very valuable 8 points for the Team. What a gripping race & what a finish!
After the race, Alonso said, "I'm happy with the result today and we were able to captalise on some action on the final few laps to take 6th position. It was a little bit of a lonely race for me with nobody ahead to fight with. We executed everything well with a good strategy and pitstops, so I'm happy we've come away from this weekend in Baku with some well-earned points." Stroll’s comments were, "My race was pretty much over on the first lap when Tsunoda and I made contact. With 9 laps to go I started feeling an issue with the brake pedal and it was getting worse with each lap. This isn't a circuit to take any risks at, and we were well out of the points positions, so it made sense to retire the car.”
Leaving Baku with 8 points was a good return for the Team’s efforts & it was more than expected. But it shows there are always opportunities on challenging street tracks. Poignantly, the Team packed up in Baku to head for another street circuit, in Singapore next weekend.