Ray S

Sorry gents, forgot it was a race weekend......

Who will win?

StoogeMoe

Yeah how did they get all the way from Canada to Baku in less than 1 week? Imagine the logistics involved.

Well it looks like it's going to be Hamster again, but maybe we'll get a surprise. Almost certainly it will be a Mercedes powered car.

My993C2

Expect multiple safety cars deployed during the race.

multi21

Long safety car periods in fact, accidents, carbon shards, and a lot of guys using the escape roads and losing spots. The Mercs are faster than everyone else by a wide margin but too many variables to give it to them -- it'll be totally unpredictable in terms of results

FGL28

The real winner will be the track for many crashes.

LuigiVampa

Surprised it wasn't a wreckfest.

That being said, it was boring. Unlike Monaco there are places to pass but it didn't hold my interest.

Communication rules are ridiculous. Mercedes couldn't tell Hamilton how to get in the right setting. Racing is a team sport so communication with engineers should be a allowed. With so much else wrong with F1 why do they focus on this?

Coochas

Totally agree. I was waiting for a red flag when that narrow part of the circuit would get clogged up with wrecked cars. I'm glad I was wrong.

As for Hammy, I feel bad that they can't tell him how to fix the car with an adjustment on the wheel. That just seems wrong. I'm interested to see the story behind it. Did he accidentally alter something or did the car go into some sort of limp mode?

paradisenb

No crashes, no Safety or VSC at that place makes that a miracle race.
Rosberg was precise and perfect all weekend. Never put the car at risk and turned great times.
Nico had the same issues with settings on his car as LH, big difference is Nico had and knew what to do to reset his car.

A distance 2nd place is a big disappointment for Ferrari. They finished 18 secs behind Nico's Mercedes. Sadly, nobody is going to really catch Merc in this era.

Nizer

5 grid spot penalty because you replace a part after a crash is a fail in my book. Ditto holding the cars back from real racing in the name of efficiency. Don't see much changing until they start letting drivers actually drive flat out.

At least qualifying still provides a bit of drama.

My993C2

I suspect the teams hammered home the message that "you can't win the race on the first lap" and for once the drivers listened?

If I am not mistaken Rosberg did his homework on the new track in the simulator prior to arriving at the race (which likely included practicing engine resets just like how airline pilots practice emergency procedures in the simulator) while Hamilton was off playing with his rich and famous entourage since Lewis sees little value in simulators. Without a doubt Hamilton is a talented driver. But he showed up unprepared versus his WDC rival who came prepared. It's Hunt vs Lauda all over again.

StoogeMoe

Hamster wins 2 in a row and everybody is jumping on his bandwagon proclaiming him as the world champion again. Not yet! Nico has the momentum back on his side. I think he knows this is probably his last chance at getting one. He isn't about to lay over and die.

This was the perfect track for the Mercedes with that super long straight. I expect Ferrari to be right back on their tail at the next one. Congrats to Checo and Force India for a great race!