Azerbaijan · The Wall-Banger

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Baku City Circuit

6.003 km

Lap length

51

Laps

20

Corners

2

DRS zones

Baku City Circuit, Baku
Photo: Press Service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (CC BY 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons
City
Baku
First GP
2016
Race distance
306.049 km
Lap record
1:43.009 · Charles Leclerc (2019)
Round 15 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Azerbaijan

A street race with one of the longest straights in F1

Baku is genuinely two-tracks-in-one: the first sector winds through the medieval Old City around 90-degree corners with millimeter-wide walls, and then the long pit straight (over 2.2 km) opens up for top speeds approaching 360 km/h.

Why it matters

The Baku circuit is famous for chaos. Every year produces multiple safety cars, surprise crashes, dramatic pit-stop misadventures, or all of the above. Sebastian Vettel infamously rammed Lewis Hamilton under safety car here in 2017; Pierre Gasly’s helmet visor got hit by a manhole cover in 2019; both Red Bulls crashed independently in 2021.

What to watch for

  • The castle section (Turns 8–12) — narrowest part of any F1 circuit. Walls touch on either side at one point.
  • Turn 1 — heaviest braking. Top-speed slipstream battles into here every lap.
  • Late-race chaos — strategists hold back a tyre stop for an inevitable safety car. They’re almost always right to.