AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX PREVIEW Round 8 of 20 Baku, 23-25 June 2017

Milan, June 19, 2017 – As the most recently arrived venue on the Formula 1 calendar, the Baku street circuit is the one that the teams have the least information about, having only driven there once for the inaugural race last year. Since then the technical regulations and tyre characteristics have changed, so it’s once more a blank sheet of paper. The tyres nominated for the longest and fastest street circuit of the year are P Zero White medium, P Zero Yellow soft and P Zero Red supersoft: a combination last seen in Bahrain this year (and also used in Baku last year).

THE THREE NOMINATED COMPOUNDS

THE CIRCUIT FROM A TYRE POINT OF VIEW

 At 6.003 kilometres (including a 2.2km straight) Baku is the second-longest lap of the year after Spa, with 20 corners.  It’s known as ‘the city of winds’: these gusting winds can make car set-up tricky.  At the beginning of the up-hill old town section the circuit is very narrow: and the cars are 20 centimetres wider this year.  High top speeds over 360kph are expected on the straight: in 2016, it was 378kph.  Part of the lap is on new asphalt, so teams will discover the grip in free practice. One stop was the winning strategy last year and this should be the case again in 2017.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING

“Following Monaco and Montreal, Baku is the third non-permanent, low-grip venue in succession, but it has a very different character. The lap is a lot faster, with more energy going through the tyres, and track temperatures could be very high, like last year. For these reasons, we’ve chosen a range of tyres in the middle of the spectrum, which worked well in 2016. Maybe a surprise back then was that there were no safety cars, despite predictions to the contrary, so this could be a factor to consider when formulating race strategy. With a combination of low-speed corners and long straights, it’s quite hard to find the right balance, especially in terms of downforce.”

WHAT’S NEW?  The Baku street circuit is largely unchanged in layout from the inaugural race last year, with safety barriers having been altered in five or six corners, especially Turn 15.  If Lewis Hamilton claims pole position in Baku, he will have broken the record of 65 poles established by Ayrton Senna and will be within touching distance of Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 68 poles this year.  It’s much more than possible that the lap record will be broken this year. Currently the fastest lap ever of Baku is 1m42.758s in qualifying and 1m46.485s in the race.

BAKU MINIMUM STARTING PRESSURES (SLICKS)

22 psi (front) – 21 psi (rear)

EOS CAMBER LIMIT

-3.50° (front) | -2.00° (rear)

THE TYRES NOMINATED THIS SEASON

Australia    China   

Bahrain   

Russia    Spain    Monaco   

Canada   

Azerbaijan    Austria    Great Britain    Hungary    Belgium

Italy Singapore    Malaysia   

Copyright-free videos and photos Follow us on More info on f1pressarea.pirelli.com @pirellisport Racingspot.pirelli.com Facebook/PirelliMotorsport Instagram/pirelli_motorsport

For further information please contact Roberto Boccafogli • +39 335 125 6694 • [email protected]

Maria Stella Narciso • +39 338 942 3585 • [email protected] Anthony Peacock • +44 7765 896 930 • [email protected]

Sara Vimercati • +39 366 620 9720 • [email protected]

Pirelli Tyre Press Office • +39 02 6442 4270 • [email protected]