The 2022 Baku GP wasn’t the best race of the year. The track temperature was hotter than expected and this put more emphasis on tyre management than originally thought. Charles picled up a flatspot trying to brake for turn1, so he was on the backfoot right at the beginning.
The Race
As the race went on, one of the Ferraris (Carlos Sainz) dropped out on lap 9 due to hydraulics issue, highlighting that this team has not gotten a handle on their reliability issues. This brought out the VSC and among the leaders, Leclerc and Russell pitted during the VSC for Hard tyres. Red Bull dummied Ferrari at the first round of pitstops when the VSC came out. And of course, Ferrari fell for it.
Lewis fought through the field, despite complaining of the porpoising and a painful back. He did a great job, despite yet again being held up by slower cars like the Alpine of Ocon, Alpha Tauri of Tsunoda and others. Lewis needs to qualify better – this is his big weakness right now, and the only way he can show his true race pace and not constantly be lost in the pack. The problem with all these solid performances through the field is that they are being overshadowed by George always finishing ahead. Lewis must be gutted.
By around lap 13, Perez had struggled to maintain pace and Max caught up with him, eventually passing him. Post-race Perez claimed that he wanted to pit during the first VSC caused by Sainz, but there was some sort of team misunderstanding. Whatever the case, Perez’s pace on the medium tyre was nowhere compared to Max. This goes back to the narrative that Perez is some sort of superior driver when it comes to tyre management.
Ferrari need to have a serious review of their power unit. Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Haas all had power unit failures, and all are obviously Ferrari-powered. Not good optics and an ominous sign for the rest of the season. RedBull have pace, reliability and Max. It’s going to take a monumental fightback by Ferrari to win this Year.
Alonso and Ocon consolidated points nicely for Alpine. Ocon went long on his first set and held up numerous cars (like Vettel), but somehow he still finished behind his teammate. Alonso’s one-stop paid off and he did well to fend off the McLarens.
Alpha Tauri had good pace too – Gasly was passed by Lewis at the end but achieved 6th on a one-stop, but Tsunoda’s DRS failed which dropped him behind several cars including Albon’s Williams which came from 17th to 12th. A great drive by Alex.
McLaren were solid finishing 8th and 9th.
At the end, the podium was completed by Max (P1), Sergio (P2), and George (P3).
