We are 3 races into the 24-race-long 2023 Formula One season. The fourth round will take place at the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan. It is one of the most exciting street circuits of the calendar, having 20 turns and an incredibly long straight for DRS use. The street circuit is one of those circuits that experience a lot of slipstreaming and runs through the shoreline of the city.
It then runs into the old city area of the city where the circuit becomes twisty and punishing for small errors. It is 3.73 miles long and takes place over 51 laps of the circuit.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix schedule and time
The Azerbaijan GP will take place in the last week of April. It features a sprint race and therefore will feature 2 practice sessions.
The first practice and qualifying for the sprint race will take place on the 28th of April from 7:00 and 10:30 ET in the morning respectively. The 29th of April will again have two events, the second practice and the sprint race from 7:00 and 11:00 EST in the morning respectively. Sunday, the 30th of April will see the main race lights out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at 8:30 EST.
Where to watch the Azerbaijan GP?
The Azerbaijan GP will be available for fans to watch on ESPN in the United States. The 4th round of the 2023 season will also be available through the fans’ subscription to F1 TV and F1 TV Pro. The difference is that the latter is a more enriched and refined experience allowing fans to watch from multiple angles.
What to look out for in the Azerbaijan GP?
One of the most important things to look out for at Baku will be if Sergio Perez, who has prowess in the street circuits, will be able to come to level with his teammate from the Netherlands, Max Verstappen. The sprint race allows the drivers an opportunity to get 8 more points and therefore, the close battles between drivers and constructors can be put to greater distance. Constructors like McLaren and Ferrari will be introducing new upgrades to their cars for a boost in performance.
Red Bull open up an 80-point lead 👀#AzerbaijanGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/CrQLsMSCZR
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 12, 2022
Last year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a Red Bull one-two, with Verstappen taking the win. Mercedes’ George Russell took the final spot on the podium.
Race winner Max Verstappen mentioned, “We had incredible pace in the car, we could look after the tires and we could chip away at it, pass for the lead,”. It was a pretty eventful event with 5 DNFs with Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Zhou Guanyu, Lance Stroll, and Kevin Magnussen being not able to get to the finish. The race dropped Leclerc to third place behind Sergio Perez and resulted in Red Bull’s domination of the 2022 season.