A lot of things happened this past weekend. That’s why we have the GP of Azerbaijan 2023 especially for you and everything that caught our eye about the race.
If you have to wait three weeks for an F1 race, you get a snooze-fest. The fan will also be a bit beaten down by all the F1 spectacle of the weekend. Two qualifying sessions, a sprint race and then – oh yes – also a main race.
And it was the feature race where the least happened. Except for De Vries who crashed (again) so that there were suddenly pit stops and Verstappen ended up behind Pérez.
Notable things from last weekend
Before we share the standings after the 2023 Azerbaijan GP, there were a few things that stood out to us about the race:
Good atmosphere Aston Martin (logical)
At Aston Martin they are convinced of their qualities and the atmosphere seems to be getting better every race. You would think that Alonso and Stroll regularly fight each other, but they handle it quite maturely. Stroll indicated at the start of the race that he was not going to attack Fernando. This way, both Aston Martins could continue to make it difficult for the Mercedes. That plan worked out well, although Lance also hit the wall, exactly where De Vries did. Stroll, however, just finished the race in the points.
De Vries fails 3 times in 3 days
We have stood up for Nyck de Vries several times and we give him the benefit of the doubt. That AlphaTauri is a reasonable soapbox this year that is not very possible with it. It was clear that there was something to be gained with the AT04 this weekend. In the first practice he did very well, but then De Vries fell through the ice 3 times by eliminating himself 3 times.
Positive note: if the speed is there, De Vries can extract it from the car and the AlphaTauri therefore has a speciality: high-speed circuits. But De Vries now has to show a few races that he belongs in the field. He now dangles at the bottom of the Drivers’ Championship.
Mercedes not fast
James Vowles can’t come back to Mercedes early enough. The Mercedes team did not have the best weekend. For years Mercedes was by far the best team and for years they were the fastest on the straights. And now? They are nowhere, somewhere in midfield.
Don’t forget that Mercedes has two extremely good drivers who mask the shortcomings of the car very well. The fact that the Mercedes cars WITH the DRS on don’t come close to cars WITHOUT the system, shows how sad the situation is. At high speed, anyway.
Don’t get lost like a fish in water
When it comes to qualifying, starting and street circuits, things don’t always go brilliantly for Max Verstappen. This sounds a bit unfortunate, but that absolute overspeed that Verstappen can show on regular circuits during the race, is not always there on street circuits. Pérez is clearly much more at home on a street circuit and Leclerc is the absolute star when it comes to speed over one lap. Lately we are getting used to Verstappen winning all the trophies, but that is not always the case on a street circuit.
Pérez strong and stable
That is because Sergio Pérez is very good on street circuits. And he showed that too. He didn’t get that lead in the standings through a nice overtaking action, that was lucky with the safety car. But during the race, Verstappen did not come close for a long time.
So in that respect, Pérez can just get a feather in the ass. In the beginning, Verstappen was able to follow his teammate a bit, but as the race progressed he found it very difficult.
DRS may be moved forward up to 100 meters
Oh yes, before we forget. it was a very boring race. Rare, because usually Baku City Circuit is a guarantee for spectacle. Why not now? Well, we think partly thanks to the short DRS zone. The point came 100 meters later than usual last weekend. As a result, overtaking was hardly possible.
Perhaps the boring race was also because everyone drove more or less in the position where the car belongs in terms of speed. Then you have a field that slowly pulls something apart. Baku is also not a circuit where you can take a risk with tire strategy: a pit stop takes a very long time (you lose a lot of time here) and overtaking is quite difficult.
Drivers Championship
We have a load of points twice. One for the sprint, the other for the race. Significant steps are being taken as a result. It is now more exciting than ever between Pérez and Verstappen. Especially since there is not even a DNF from Verstappen. Kudos to Pérez, of course!
The standings after the GP Azerbaijan 2023 in the Drivers’ Championship are as follows:
Position | Driver | Team | Points |
1 | Verstappen | Red Bull | 93 |
2 | Perez | Red Bull | 87 |
3 | Alonso | Aston Martin | 60 |
4 | Hamilton | Mercedes | 48 |
5 | Sainz | Ferrari | 34 |
6 | Leclerc | Ferrari | 28 |
7 | Mercedes | Russell | 28 |
8 | Stroll | Aston Martin | 27 |
9 | Norris | McLaren | 10 |
10 | Hulkenberg | Hare | 6 |
11 | Piastri | McLaren | 4 |
12 | Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 4 |
13 | Ocon | Alpine | 4 |
14 | Gasly | Alpine | 4 |
15 | zhou | Alfa Romeo | 2 |
16 | Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 2 |
17 | Albon | Williams | 1 |
18 | Magnussen | Hare | 1 |
19 | Sergeant | Williams | 0 |
20 | DeVries | AlphaTauri | 0 |
Constructors’ Championship
It is exciting between the Red Bull drivers, but that is not the case yet when it comes to the constructors. The difference with the rest is really gargantuan. All teams have scored points, but the difference between the middle and rearguard is starting to become clearer. The gap between McLaren and Ferrari is huge.
The standings after the 2023 Azerbaijan GP in the Constructors’ Championship are as follows:
Position | Team | Points |
1 | Red Bull Honda RBPT | 180 |
2 | Aston Martin Mercedes | 87 |
3 | Mercedes | 76 |
4 | Ferrari | 62 |
5 | McLaren-Mercedes | 14 |
6 | Alpine Renault | 8 |
7 | Haas Ferrari | 7 |
8 | Alfa Romeo Ferrari | 6 |
9 | AlphaTauri Honda RBPT | 2 |
19 | Williams-Mercedes | 1 |
Qualifying game
Please note: we are looking at qualifying for the race, not for the sprint race or Saturday’s result! What did we notice? Well, Hülkenberg has no problem staying ahead of Magnussen (not in terms of race pace, by the way). This while Magnussen easily beat Mick Schumacher. De Vries is already 4-0 behind Tsunoda. For the first time this season, Hamilton was faster than Norris in qualifying.
The standings after the GP Azerbaijan 2023 in the qualifying game are as follows:
Rider | Rider | ||
Verstappen | 3 | Perez | 1 |
Alonso | 4 | Stroll | 0 |
Russell | 3 | Hamilton | 1 |
Leclerc | 3 | Sainz Jr. | 1 |
Norris | 3 | Piastri | 1 |
Ocon | 3 | Gasly | 1 |
Hulkenberg | 4 | Magnussen | 0 |
Guanyu | 2 | Bottas | 2 |
Tsunoda | 4 | deVries | 0 |
Albon | 4 | Sergeant | 0 |
Fastest race lap
It was all the time switching between Verstappen, Pérez and Alonso. Super exciting, of course. On lap 50, George Russell was able to make a free pit stop. Russell had a big lead on Ocon, allowing him to fit a set of fresh red tires at the end. Russell drove a clear fastest lap and took the last point.
The standings after the GP Azerbaijan 2023 in terms of fastest race laps are as follows:
Driver | Team | Number of fastest race laps |
zhou | Alfa Romeo | 1 |
Russell | Red Bull | 1 |
Verstappen | Red Bull | 1 |
Perez | Red Bull | 1 |
Driver of the Day
We all love a good story about the winning underdog. The viewers are therefore all very happy Pérez won, because he got the Driver of the Day-trophy. Now that is not unjustified. He drove faultless and fast, where many still had trouble driving without errors.
The standings after the GP Azerbaijan 2023 in terms of Driver of the Day nominations are as follows:
Driver | Team | Number of nominations |
Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 2 |
Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 1 |
Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1 |
Did the Autoblog editors predict the race correctly?
Jaap is doing well this season! He knew without following the start of the race that Pérez would win. He takes five points with that. He slightly overestimated the speed of the Aston Martins. Michael had guessed Pérez and Verstappen correctly, but not in the right position. The same goes for Wouter.
The position after the GP Azerbaijan 2023 in the editorial ranking is as follows:
Editor | Points |
Jaap (PERALO, STR) | 32 |
Michael (FAR, PERALO) | 16 |
Wouter (FARham, PER) | 15 |
Good driver = 1 point, good driver in the right position: 5 points
These Grands Prix have already been held:
- March 5 | Bahrain GP
- March 19 | Saudi Arabia GP
- April 2 | Australian GP
- April 30 | GP of Azerbaijan
These Grands Prix are still on the calendar:
Date | Race |
May 05 – May 07 | Miami GP |
May 19 – May 21 | GP of Emilia-Romagna |
May 26 – May 28 | Monaco GP |
02 Jun. – 04 Jun. | Spain GP |
16 Jun. – Jun 18. | Canada GP |
30 Jun. – Jul 02 | GP of Austria |
Jul 07 – Jul 09 | Great Britain GP |
Jul 21 – Jul 23 | Hungarian GP |
Jul 28 – Jul 30 | GP of Belgium |
Aug 25 – Aug 27 | GP of the Netherlands |
Sep 01 – 03 Sep. | GP of Italy |
Sep 15 – Sept 17 | Singapore GP |
Sep 22 – 24 Sep. | GP of Japan |
06 Oct. – 08 Oct. | Qatar GP |
Oct 20 – Oct 22 | United States GP |
Oct 27 – Oct 29 | GP of Mexico |
03 Nov. – 05 Nov. | Brazil GP |
17 Nov. – 19 Nov. | Las Vegas GP |
24 Nov. – 26 Nov. | Abu Dhabi GP |
The first meters of the Miami GP will be held on May 3 at 8:30 PM.
This article Stand after GP Azerbaijan 2023 plus six things that stood out first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
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