Lewis serene amid doubts over circuit
IN Europe? Not quite. Tickets sold? Not quite. A street circuit? Not quite. It’s all been a bit of a stretch so far in Baku. It was a stretch for everyone just to be in Azerbaijan. Even by Formula One’s standards, the decision to hold this race immediately after last week’s Canadian Grand Prix is baffling.
Cash- strapped Sauber were unable to join the special charter flights that flew the 5,500 miles directly from Montreal, instead going back to their base in Zurich before getting here via Istanbul to cut costs.
As stewards frantically made running repairs to the new circuit yesterday, it looked as if they should have stayed at home. Lack of run-off areas at several of the Baku City Circuit’s corners had been the chief concern among drivers even before they had got into their cars. Once they had, damage to the kerbs after the first practice session threatened to force the cancellation of the second and plunge the weekend into chaos.
But nothing, it seems, can stop Lewis Hamilton’s charge. Back-to-back wins in Monaco and Montreal have seen the Briton cut Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg’s championship lead to nine points.
Despite completing just eight laps of the track in the simulator and not walking it beforehand, Hamilton took to the new layout like a duck to water, topping both practice sessions as Rosberg was hit by an engine problem.
‘It took me five or six (laps) to learn it. On the simulator it was very easy,’ said Hamilton. He certainly made it look so. The three-time world champion has looked confident all week and while the sport takes a leap into the unknown here, his form and Rosberg’s struggles give the season an increasing air of inevitability.
Hamilton even had the confidence to take a pop at some of the other drivers who have worried about safety on the new course. ‘One thing for sure is that these drivers moan so much about so many things,’ was his verdict.
With its World Heritage old town and modern illuminating Flame Towers sat side-by-side, Baku is a city of sharp contrasts — and so is the circuit. ‘A mixture of Monaco and Monza,’ was how one engineer described it. It is both fast and slow, wide and narrow.
The 2.1km start-finish straight is the longest on the calendar. The drivers reached 220mph here during practice before coming down to 75mph during the treacherous middle part of the lap.
At this point they wend their way through the old town and the narrowest section on the calendar, barely wide enough for two cars. ‘When I laid it out in the first place I was told I was mad,’ said the sport’s supremo Bernie Ecclestone. ‘Trying to get the old city and the new city together was tough. It looks like it’s worked all right.’ Azerbaijan becomes the fourth host country of the returning European Grand Prix after Britain, Spain and Germany. It lies more in Asia than Europe, but has stepped in with the sport’s traditional venues struggling to afford increasing race fees. However, the future is far from certain. The economy has been hit by falling oil prices and, despite a big marketing push, interest is cool. Many of the 28,000 tickets remain unsold. F1 follows hosting the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, the 2015 European Games and agreeing to stage matches at the 2020 Euros. It is an attempt to rejuvenate the economy and whitewash a poor human rights record which saw Ecclestone criticised for racing here. But, like it or not, F1 will stay in Baku for a minimum of five years at a cost of £30million per race — more than double what Silverstone pays.