Albon on Baku: "It's a track that offers unpredictable races"

The days preceding the appointment with the Azerbaijan Grand Prixeighth round of the 2022 world championship, were not particularly easy to digest at home Williams, both for the team itself and for its drivers. In the days immediately following the Monaco GP, both Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi were accused of impeding by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who have remarked several times a not entirely correct sporting behavior assumed by the two drivers of the Grove team. More recently, however, the same team reached an agreement with the FIA for the failure to send the documentation relating to its 2021 expenses, thus receiving a fine of $ 25,000 from the International Federation.

The best way to overcome these complex moments can therefore be to get back on track this weekend, on the unique Baku city circuit which has many slow and tortuous sections ‘broken’ by a long straight, where on the contrary very high speeds are reached. Features highlighted primarily by Alexander Albonwhich will return to Azerbaijan for the first time since 2019. In that year, in fact, he competed in the GP at the wheel of Toro Rosso, before not taking part in the 2021 edition – in 2020 the race was not held in Baku for the pandemic – season in which he was not even present on the deployment: “I like Baku a lot because it tends to be a circuit with many opportunities – explained the Anglo-Thai – it’s a street circuit, but it represents a different challenge from the one we faced in Monaco a couple of weeks ago. The races are quite unpredictable, which I think is good for us and on paper it is a circuit that should be suitable for us. We will try to start strong from Friday and get a good result for the team ”.

Opinions and expectations very similar to those expressed also by Nicholas Latifistill looking for the first points this season: “Baku is always a very interesting and exciting race – added the Canadian – from the track point of view, it is a high-speed city circuit with very long straights. There are repetitive cornering sequences, many of them at 90 degrees, which makes it important to tune the car to fit these characteristics. It is quite pleasant, as once you have found a good pace on the track it is easy to find the lap time both in qualifying and in the race set-up. The only thing where that Baku never disappoints is about the emotions in the race, having already experienced them in recent years. The long straight and the DRS zones favor this aspect. We hope to have a good weekend and take advantage of all the opportunities that arise “.