Got your pass? Check. McLaren kit? Check. Okay, good, now switch off your phone and follow us through the glass doors and into the Paddock Performance Centre. Grab a coffee on your way in, and we’ll get started with our engineering briefing for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. 

We'll be street racing for the second round in a row, but the Baku City Circuit and the Circuit de Monaco have very little in common, apart from the potential for porpoising. Keeping the engine and the brakes cool will be key, as will be working out where we make compromises in our set-up, given the differing requirements of each section on this track.

Take notes if you need them, but please keep them to yourself.

Engineer: Jose Manuel López
Event: Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Circuit: Baku City Circuit

Background

Baku is an unusual circuit that requires a lot of compromises to be made. We will spend Friday’s practice sessions working out where all of those compromises are going to be.

At the centre of this is the 1.9km straight, running all the way from the exit of Turn 16, to Turn 1. Thinking about this dominates the set-up and configuration of the car, because it is very different to the rest of the track, which is more in the style of a traditional street circuit.

The first thing to note is that we’ll be introducing a new rear wing this weekend, with lower drag than the ones that we have been using so far this year. A primary topic on Friday will be evaluating that wing, and comparing our performance to that of our competitors.

Challenges

Every year at this circuit, all of the teams try to run very low-drag configurations on Friday and try to find the limit, before perhaps adding a little more downforce for Saturday.

While the straight demands low downforce, the rest of the track isn’t well suited to it: particularly the section from T3 to T12, and then again at T15. So, there’s a compromise to be made.

The team will want high end-of-straight speed, both for good one-lap qualifying performance and also for overtaking in the race… but we also can’t ignore the parts of the circuit that need more aerodynamic load to help the car look after its tyres.

Agenda

1 | Porpoising 

It’s been the hot topic everywhere this year, but it will be a big issue in Baku, particularly through T17-20. These are going to be taken flat-out, but it’s going to be tricky being full-throttle at high-fuel, which is something we’ll have to check out.

All year, the aim of Friday practice has been to get the rear ride-height as low as possible. As was the case in Monaco, it’s more difficult on a bumpy street circuit than on a smooth permanent circuit – but we still need to exploit the performance of the floor as much as possible, and the lower it is, the better it will perform.

… But equally, the lower the rear ride-height, the greater the likelihood of porpoising, which needs to be minimised as much as possible. It’s another aspect of set-up we need to study across Friday.

Yet another involves choosing the compromise you wish to make with the amount of cooling you have for brakes and power unit.

2 | Engine cooling

In terms of engine cooling, while there are good overtaking opportunities on the main straight, in the past, we’ve seen DRS trains forming on this circuit, and in that situation, the lack of clean air can cause engine temperatures to rise.

To counter that, we can run with more cooling – but more cooling goes hand-in-hand with less efficiency. The situation isn’t quite as grave as at some other circuits, because there are reasonable opportunities to pull out to the side on the wide streets, but it is nevertheless a factor for which teams will want to discover how much margin they need.

3 | Brake cooling 

Brakes are interesting in Baku because of – once again – that long straight. With a long distance – and a long time – between braking points, naturally the brakes will be losing temperature, making them less effective in T1.

It’s possible to reduce the amount of cooling going to the brakes, to ensure they’re in the correct operating window for T1 – but if you do that, then almost certainly they’ll be too hot in the Old Town section of the track, particularly during the race. Again, a compromise has to be made.

4 | Maximising confidence   

Beyond the requirements for cooling, there is also the factor of brake performance to consider. With this generation of cars, the concern – more than stability on the brakes – is whether the front of the car is hitting the ground when the driver hits the brakes

This impacts the driver's confidence as it results in more front-locking, and so on. As with all street circuits, this has genuine lap-time connotations because there’s time to be found in having a confident driver.

Briefing complete. Time for Lando and Daniel to head out onto the track so that we can collect some data and put our hard work to the test. 

Join the team

McLaren Plus is our free-to-join fan engagement programme, bringing McLaren fans closer to the team with the most inclusive, rewarding and open-to-all fan programmes in motorsport.

Sign up now, or current members can amend their details in the form below if necessary.