Formula 1’s inaugural trip to Baku in 2016 delivered an unexpectedly unspectacular race. One year later, the ‘17 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a modern classic.
Featuring three safety cars, a red flag, inter-team and intra-team rivalries reaching flashpoints and a four-time world champion deliberately driving into a three-time world champion, the race was littered with incidents.
By half-distance, the running order resembled the results of a tombola, with number three proving to be the lucky ticket. Daniel Ricciardo had vaulted from an early pitstop on lap five for overheating brakes to the top of the order as he eventually snatched a fifth career win.
With the race delivering a nearly unprecedented level of incidents, most drivers and teams left Baku pondering hypothetical questions and rueing missed opportunities.
Championship protagonists Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton were no doubt at the top of this list. After having started the 2017 season in amicable fashion, paying plenty of compliments to each other and always highlighting their enjoyment of “the battle,” Azerbaijan proved to be the scene of the first flashpoint in their rivalry.
During the first safety car period of the race, Hamilton took control of the field relatively early to allow the safety car to build a gap. At the sharp left-hander at Turn 15, Hamilton seemed to slow down and Vettel failed to anticipate it. He slammed into the back of the Mercedes, damaging his front wing. As the red mist descended, Vettel pulled alongside Hamilton and bumped into him in disapproval of what he deemed to have been a brake-test.
While both cars were undamaged, the incident proceeded to go nuclear.
With Vettel recovering from a 10-second stop-go penalty to finish fourth, Hamilton ended up only fifth after an unscheduled pitstop to replace an unattached headrest.
Hamilton claimed that Vettel’s penalty, which still allowed him to recover to claim not only 12 points but to extend his championship advantage, set a “dangerous precedent” for not only F1 but also junior categories. Vettel proceeded to awkwardly sweep the issue under the carpet in decidedly inelegant fashion immediately after the race.
By the time the paddock reconvened in Austria, the debate continued but the soundbites from the drivers took a different angle. Vettel had avoided further punishment after an FIA investigation into the incident. He also apologised and expressed his regret for what he described as a “wrong decision, to drive alongside him [Hamilton] and hit his tyre.” Hamilton, meanwhile, mirrored Vettel’s desire to move on from the incident.
Perhaps less inclined to forget about a barmy Baku race were the Force India pair of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon. With key players tripping over each and other and eliminating themselves from contention, Perez and Ocon would have likely been first and second in the latter stages having run ahead of Ricciardo and with similar pace early on.
However, the team-mates committed racing’s biggest sin and clumsily collided on the exit of Turn 2 after the second safety car restart. Ocon, who had passed Perez on the entry to the corner, crowded his team-mate into the concrete wall on the exit, leaving both cars damaged.
Perez maintained that he was in agreement with the team in placing the blame with Ocon. He, on the other hand, suggested that the team had deemed it a racing incident.
Regardless, the move not only cost the team what could have not only been a maiden victory but a maximum haul of 43 invaluable points for a one-two finish. It also had serious repercussions further down the line.
Perez and Ocon proceeded to tangle at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix and collided with each other twice during the Belgian Grand Prix, eventually leading to the team banning the pair from racing each other.
Force India was not the only midfield outfit to leave Baku pondering a painful ‘what if’ scenario. Williams enjoyed its first podium of 2017 delivered by rookie Lance Stroll. But for unreliability, it could have been career win number 12 and a first since 2008 for Felipe Massa.
Ricciardo may have scythed passed Massa on the second safety car restart, but by this point the Williams had already suffered its race-ending drama. The rear damper had failed, resulting in the front of the car rigidly and visibly bouncing up and down at high speed.
Massa had displayed pace to equal Ricciardo’s throughout the race to that point and as such, would have unquestionably been in the catbird seat to grab the victory.
“After Baku, there were a lot of people that came up to me afterwards and said we could’ve won that race if only,” said Williams’ technical director Paddy Lowe when speaking to Autosport. “I definitely agreed with the Felipe scenario.
“If only we hadn’t let him down with a car failure, he absolutely would’ve won that race. It’s such a shame that in his final year, we denied him that victory.”
Massa’s team-mate Stroll managed to avoid the carnage ahead and was one of few drivers to have an incident-free race. Third place was his reward.
Had he not lost out to Valtteri Bottas in a drag race to the finish line, he would have been one step higher on his maiden trip to the podium. Stroll had only achieved his first F1 points finish two weeks prior to Baku.
Last year’s result will unquestionably be in the back of any midfielders mind heading into this weekend. The streets of Baku are hugely challenging. In sections surrounding the old town, it is as tight and technical as Monaco, but the long straights mean that drivers have to go without the high downforce levels that they lean on at the Principality, which only adds to the challenge.
It could, therefore, be another lottery and drivers will know that they need to be in it to win it by the time the chequered flag flies. That could lead to a mundane race, in which everyone adopts the same conservative approach.
However, given the challenges posed by Baku’s streets, coupled with overtaking opportunities for both a frantic and unpredictable leading and midfield scrap, mundane is not likely to be a word you hear repeated this weekend.
