By Abhishek Takle
It’s crunch time for
Ferrari as
Formula One heads to Baku for this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Having gone into the season as favourites, a meagre haul of two third-place finishes is the best the Maranello-based squad have managed to chalk up three races into the season. Rivals
Mercedes, meanwhile, have romped away to three straight one-two finishes.
Already 57 points behind their rivals, albeit with 18 races still to go, Ferrari need to start turning the tide. “I know that some people like to put it that this is the ‘turning around’ or the decider or so on,” said
Sebastian Vettel, whose third place finish at the last race in China was his first podium of the season.
“I think we have a lot of races left and hopefully at one point we can look back and say this was the decider and the decisive moment.
“Right now, I don’t know and I don’t really care.
“We want to win, that’s for any race we go to.
“I think we have a very strong package and I’m confident that if we can get it in the right place then we should be able to show that and give the others a very, very hard time.” Mercedes have to be considered favourites going into Sunday’s race, a run through the streets of Baku.
But the unique layout of the circuit with its mix of ultra-fast straights and tight, twisting corners with no margin for error have tended to throw up some thrilling and unpredictable racing.
The long straights could play to Ferrari’s strengths, who are also bringing updates to their chassis, this weekend and
Charles Leclerc will be especially fired up.
The Monegasque was denied a maiden Formula One win by engine trouble in Bahrain. In China he was ordered to move over for team-mate Vettel.
But Baku holds a special emotional significance for the 21-yearold, who won a 2017 Formula Two race from pole position at the circuit only days after the death of his father. He also scored his first Formula One points at the track last year for Sauber, now Alfa Romeo.
Equally hungry will be
Valtteri Bottas. The Finn may feel he has a score to settle with the circuit after a blown tyre three laps from the end last year snatched an almost certain win away from him and handed it to Mercedes team-mate
Lewis Hamilton instead.
The first win of what had until then been a lacklustre season for the Briton, it propelled him to ten more triumphs and a fifth world championship, even as Bottas ended the year without a single win.
But the Finn has come back this year a more determined, focussed and ruthless driver. Looking like more a match for Hamilton, with a win and two pole positions from the first three races, victory on Sunday could see him return to the top of the overall championship standings.
“That’s life, that’s how it goes sometimes, but it’s early in the season and I’m only a few points behind in the championship,” said Bottas, who lost the points lead to Hamilton after finishing second to him in China.
“For sure I would prefer to still be leading but that’s the situation now and if I keep performing well I can turn it around.
“So that’s going to be the goal for Baku,” added the 29-year-old, who now trails Hamilton by six with 18 races to run.
The unpredictability of the Baku race means there’s always a chance for, if not a surprise winner, then at least an unexpected podium finisher.
The race is the only one on the calendar that has seen a driver outside of the top-three teams finish on the podium, a feat that has been repeated in each of its three years.
Sergio Perez, in fact, is the only driver to have stood on the Baku podium twice, finishing third in 2016 and last year for Force India, now Racing Point.