Formula 1 is preparing for the eighth round of the 2022 season, and the fastest single-seaters on the planet will travel to Baku, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. On this 6,003-meter urban track, which is run counterclockwise, the drivers will take to the Azerbaijan tarmac for the sixth time, trying not to suffer the same problems as in other editions.
This circuit is very complicated for the engineers to interpret due to the different characteristics of each sector, with a first section full of 90 degree corners, followed by an area of tight and narrow corners where traction is key, and a finish straight of more than two kilometers.
The tortuous part of the castle could be an incentive for the drivers, who must be careful not to hit the walls, as happened to Charles Leclerc in his famous crash in 2019, in which he claimed “to be stupid”, but the key will be in another sense.
Choosing the correct configuration for this track will be a very complex task during the free practice sessions, since if you choose a Monza-style aerodynamic , they will be fast on the straight, but not in the turns of the rest of the track, and if you select a higher load , as in Monaco, the opposite will happen.
So, the safe bet is to go for balance, considering what happened last season. When everything was developing normally, on lap 30, Lance Stroll, who was running fourth, suffered a blowout in his left rear tire that sent him directly to the wall in an accident that startled the entire paddock.
This could have been just an incident, but just a few laps later, on lap 45, Max Verstappen, who was heading for an assured victory, was forced to retire for the same reason, causing a red flag to go out that generated an end to the sprint that Sergio Pérez took.
For this reason, degradation will be an issue for both Pirelli and the teams, who do not want any more hitting the walls at 300 km/h, but it is surprising that the MegaRide engineers have identified that it is not the rear left tire the one who suffers the most, but the right.
The long corners of the last sector generate a very high stress on the Italian company’s compounds, and the graph shows the thermal energy they generate in one lap on the Baku track. As can be seen, traction will be vital, and that’s a plus for Ferrari, which has proven to have the best car in this regard by far.
Tire temperature line in Baku
The MegaRide analysis sheds light on what happened in 2021 with Stroll and Verstappen, and although Pirelli was initially accused of the accidents, it was not a problem with the Italians in the structure of the tires, but rather misuse of them. As the graphs indicate, the right tire would be the one that would suffer the most degradation, but an incorrect pressure , one lower than that indicated by Pirelli, would have caused the blowouts due to overheating, since the single-seaters would run with a greater surface of the compound on the asphalt.
The MegaRide technicians, thanks to their simulation , were able to see the evolution of the temperature in the tires, especially on the inside. In a dry turn, the heat would tend towards this area, and the degradation and overheating would increase by 1%.
Thermal energy generated by tires in Baku
On this track in Azerbaijan, as it is a street track, the evolution of the times would accompany the development of the weekend, since no competition car circulates throughout the year and the asphalt would rubberize as the Formula 1 cars pass.
In addition, the surface is not too aggressive, so the company that supplies the tires has chosen the softest range, with the C3, C4 and C5 . Another added value would be the presence of the safety car, very possible as it passed so close to the walls, including a red flag that would allow the tires to be changed without going through the pits.
