It’s Street circuit racing in the Land of Fire

2016 saw the revival of the European Grand Prix and the birth of the Baku City Circuit on the shores of the Caspian Sea in the Land of Fire. A year later, this became the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which has gone on to produce some of the most enthralling spectacles in recent memory.

The Baku City Circuit always produces fiery fights, largely due to the track’s enormous straight. Between Turns 16 to 1, drivers can put their foot down and go flat out for 2.2km. It’s a street circuit, like Monaco, that isn't anything like Monaco.

At 6.006km (3.732 miles), it is one of the longest on the calendar. The track runs anti-clockwise and features 20 corners. Despite featuring many of the usual limitations of street circuits, such as its many 90-degree turns, overtaking is very possible in Azerbaijan, due to its prodigious pit straight and other high-speed sections.

As street circuits go, Azerbaijan is among the most spacious, but that doesn’t mean it’s all wide-open roads and overtaking opportunities… There’s a snug little section that spans just 7.6 metres wall-to-wall, requiring the levels of precision you’d expect from a street circuit.

In many ways, the Baku City Circuit is the best of both worlds, but that does make it tricky for engineers to know how to setup: do you look to exploit the long straight and accept that you’ll lose out in many of the corners, or do you focus on the corners and just try to tread water between Turns 16 and 1?

In 2024, Oscar raced to victory, securing our first win on the streets of Baku, coming out on top of a brilliant battle with Charles Leclerc.