Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), a great entertainer at the start of the season, will try to keep disrupting the red bull from Dutch Max Verstappen and the Mexican Sergio Perez in Baku, venue this weekend of Grand Prix of Azerbaijanthe fourth in the Formula One World Championship and the first of six that this year will have a new sprint format.
Unlike the last two years -the ones where the sprint was fought: then only three per season-, reduced test positions will not determine Sunday’s racing grid. This Friday the first and only free practice will be held, a few hours before the qualification that will dictate the start of the build-up week; while Saturday will have an independent character: the morning will be used for qualifying that will decide how the afternoon sprint will start, maintaining the distribution of points -for the best eight- from last season; but it won’t decide the grill on Sunday.
THEY GOT 8 POINTS IN THE SPRINT, BUT THEIR RESULTS DIDN’T ORDER SUNDAY GRILL.
The winner of the reduced race, like last year – in 2021 only three scored- will get eight points, the second will add seven; and the third, six: so to the eighth, which will add one unit to your general account.
Friday’s qualification will be the usual one -with three elimination rounds of 18, fifteen and twelve minutes-, but the ‘quali’ that will determine Saturday’s grid will be reduced: the first round (Q1) will last twelve minutes; the second, ten; and the third, eight. And it is mandatory to run with medium compound tires in Q1 and Q2; and with soft tires on the Q3.
ALONSO, A GREAT ENTERTAINER WITH THREE IN THREE AND 101 PODIUMS IN F1
alonso, 41, confirming his comment in an interview with Efe during his return to F1 -after two here where he won, among others, the World Resistance Championship (WEC)-, that “the important thing is it’s not not age, but the timer”, became a great sensation at the beginning of the course. And to his many followers, inside and outside of Spain, he made the number 33 fashionable: a number that he would reach with a new victory; ten years after thirty seconds, in 2013 at the Spanish Grand Prix.
After impressing in the pre-season tests in Bahrain, the double world champion from Asturias (2005 and 2006) has been on the podium three times in his first three races with Aston Martin, his new team. And it occupies third place in the championship, 24 points out of 69 where it commands Verstappen -candidate for the third title in a row-, leading ‘Checo’ by fifteen.
F1 resumes after nearly four weeks of inactivity, following the Australian Grand Prix; which he won, with a crazy outcome and two restarts, ahead of the seven-time English world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Alonso – who completed a luxurious podium, his 101st drawer -, Verstappen.
After raising his record of F1 victories to 36, ‘Mad Max’ -25 years old- leading with 31 points ahead of Hamilton -thirteen years older than him and whom he dethroned two years ago-, fourth in a contest where the Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Ferrari ) occupies fifth place, with 20 points : the same as another Mercedes driver, George Russell, also English.
RED BULL’S DOMINANCE, UNQUESTIONABLE AT THE START OF 2023
Mercedes, who, for the first time in the past nine seasons, failed to win the Constructors’ World Championship in the end – in favor of red bull– like speeding up. But the dominance of the powerful Austrian team was unquestionable in the early stages of the championship. Where the Aston Martin, led by the brilliant Asturian driver, made the greatest artistic leap; and it went from being the seventh car to occupying the teams second place.
Ferrarithe most successful team in history, did not have a good start to the year. Sainzwho in the second start in Melbourne held Alonso and allowed a five-second penalty that not only took him from fourth place, but also removed him from the points, keeping the man waiting for improvements.
FERRARI’S APPEAL FOR SAINZ’S SANCTION IN MELBOURNE IS REJECTED
The ‘Scuderia’ filed an appeal against the penalty in Sainz which was dismissed last week by the FIA (International Automobile Federation), so the son of the double Spanish world rally champion of the same name kept the fifth place in the World Cup and could not get away from Russell, who had the same points. as he
His companion, the Monegasque charles leclercretired in Bahrain and Australia, added only six points and was tenth in the World Cup.
In the Constructors’ World Championship, the team he now leads – replacing the Italian-Swiss Mattia Binotto – the French Frederic Vasseur will not go beyond fourth place, almost a hundred points from the 126 in which Red Bull leads, which led by 58 in Aston Martin and 67 in Mercedes.
THE OTHER FIVE SPRINTS OF 2023, IN AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, QATAR, USA AND BRAZIL
Baku hosts the first of six Grand Prix with the new sprint format recently approved to be rolled out this season. The following will enter Austria, Belgium, Qatar, United States and Brazil.
The capital of Azerbaijan made its debut in the calendar, as the European Grand Prix, in 2016. With the victory of the German Nico Rosberg -the year in which he will end the title-, ahead of his compatriot Sebastian Vettel and ‘Czech’ , who achieved that day the first of the four podiums he signed on one of his ‘talisman’ circuits.
Since then, and with the exception of 2020 (which was not played, due to the covid-19 pandemic), the Grand Prix is on the calendar with the name of the country.
‘CZECH’: ONE VICTORY AND ANOTHER THREE PODIUMS IN BAKU
‘Czech’ he was third again in 2018, a year before achieving what at the time was his second F1 victory -the first with Red Bull-; in a race with a crazy finish that was resolved in one lap -where Alonso advanced four places to finish sixth- after the ‘Mad Max’ accident. That topped the ‘double’ for the Austrian team last year, by winning ahead of the brave driver from Guadalajara, winner of this course in Saudi Arabia.
In Australia, ‘Checo’ starred in a great comeback and was chosen ‘Driver of the Day’ then, after exiting Q3, he faced the start from the ‘pit lane’ and finished fifth. In Baku, one of his ‘talisman’ tracks, the Mexican -successful in urban circuits- will seek, at least, to enter his twenty-ninth podium. On a circuit where there is no need to exclude the entry of the safety car, or the command of a red flag.
THE FOURTH CIRCUIT IS THE LONGEST, WITH THE GREATEST STRAIGHT AND BELOW SEA LEVEL
The urban circuit of Baku, 6,003 meters long, the fourth longest in the championship (it is the third, but this year the rookie from Las Vegas, USA will surpass it), has twenty turns -12 on the left and eight on the right -, two DRS zones, one of the longest straights in the World Championship, 2.2 kilometers long, and some narrow zones.
On the only track in the World Championship below sea level (Baku is 28 meters below) tires from the softest range of compounds will be used: C3 -hard, distinguished by the white stripe-, C4 -medium , yellow stripe- and C5 -soft, red-. Starting this Friday, when the only free practice and qualifying for Sunday will be played.
On Saturday, it was said: another set time (‘sprint shootout’, in English); in the morning, to order a grill for the evening sprint.
SIX DIFFERENT WINNERS IN SIX RACE RUNS
Sunday’s race is scheduled for 51 laps, to complete a 306-kilometer route. Saturday’s sprint, over a third of that distance; ie: 17 turns for something over a hundred kilometers.
Baku never won. In the six times it has been run in the capital of the former Soviet republic that bathes the Caspian Sea, six different winners have been registered. Among the assets, apart from Pérez and ‘Mad Max’, Hamilton and the Finn Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) -when he was a teammate of the former in Mercedes, the most successful in Azerbaijan- climbed to the top of the podium.
Alonso and Sainz head into the weekend confident that this trend will continue.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
