Report: Quiet race sees us leave Baku empty-handed

By Baku’s standards, the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was relatively incident-free meaning we will depart the banks of the Caspian Sea empty-handed.

Both Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant maintained their starting positions on the opening laps, but our number 23 was pinched on the inside of the second corner, subsequently losing his front wing endplate.

After both of our drivers started on the medium compound, they were in early to switch on to the mediums.

But, just a couple of laps after we’d made our stops, Nyck De Vries clipped the inside of the wall at Turn 5, leaving his AlphaTauri stranded at Turn 6, deploying a full Safety Car which allowed the cars ahead a cheaper pit stop.

At the restart, Alex would make a move stick on Zhou Guanyu to lift him up to P14 whilst Logan maintained his P18 position.

Pierre Gasly pitted for a second time shortly afterwards, lifting Logan up to P17 as we reached half distance.

Alex spent the majority of the race keeping Magnussen in his mirrors whilst also keeping close to Oscar Piastri ahead - all whilst doing so with front wing damage.

Ahead, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg were set on taking the hard compound tyres they started on as far as they could before serving their mandatory stop, with the latter soon proving a cork in the bottle.

Logan would climb a spot once more as Zhou peeled off to retire, with the American also putting up an astute defence against Gasly who would slip around the outside of Turn 1 after five laps of trying.

Alex would sail past Hulkenberg on Lap 49, before climbing higher still when Ocon eventually made his stop on the final tour of the Baku City Circuit.

“It was really tough out there today,” Alex explained to us post-race.

“I had some damage on my front wing for most of the race following contact with the McLaren, so there was a lot of management to do.

“It was tricky trying to keep the Haas behind me whilst staying close to Oscar, and not a lot of room for overtaking with the shortened DRS zones.

“We really did maximise this weekend and I think it was personally one of my strongest, especially coming off Australia.

“I think we definitely have more to find with the car, but I think I’m becoming at one with it, so hopefully we can keep this going.”

After the disappointment of missing yesterday’s Sprint action, Logan was happy to get more Formula 1 racing laps under his belt, even if it was an uneventful afternoon.

“All things considered I learned a lot this weekend,” the 22-year-old American said.

“In the race today, we got a bit unlucky with the safety car timing at the start and fell into a bit of a lonely, frustrating race.

“I was stuck behind Zhou [Guanyu] for most of it. By the time he pitted, it was just too late and I was too far disconnected from the pack ahead.

“However, when I did get in front, the car felt good, I was driving well, and the pace was not too bad at the end. I brought a set of hard tyres a long way and that’s all positive.

“Our one lap pace this weekend was good, and I was happy considering we only had one free practice session to go into qualifying and have a pretty good one.

“It was going to be an even better Sprint Shootout until the crash, so I’ll learn from that and move forward.

“The race wasn’t bad, it just fell out of our hands and was a lonely, boring one for most people.”

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance, concluded our post-Azerbaijan reaction by saying: “Alex suffered some front wing damage on the opening lap, which hurt the car balance and cost him downforce.

“Despite this, he was able to put together another very strong race; he dealt with the pressure from Gasly and Magnussen brilliantly whilst also staying close to Piastri ahead.

“The timing of the early safety car was unfortunate for our strategy, but that is the nature of racing at Baku.

“Having missed the sprint race yesterday, Logan started the Grand Prix somewhat on the back foot but still put together a strong drive to fight with Zhou and Gasly.

“His pace and car management were competitive and gave him some very valuable learning for the future.

“We arrived in Baku for this new style sprint event expecting it to be a challenge. Although we rose to that challenge well and were able to put together a strong performance overall, it is frustrating not to get some points for our effort.

“Nonetheless, we head to Miami with some positive momentum and another good opportunity to challenge the top 10.”