The Formula 1 engineer’s guide to the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku

Drivers can reach speeds of more than 360km/h on the 2.2km start-finish straight, which leads to seven 90-degree corners, followed by a winding and narrow uphill path - through the narrowest corner on the F1 calendar - that then leads drivers downhill again and back onto the long straight to finish the lap.

There are 20 corners on the official track map of Baku City Circuit, but many of them can be taken at full throttle.

Pirelli’s new-for-2025 tyre compound, the C6, plays the role of the soft tyre at Baku alongside the C4 (as the hard) and the C5 (as the medium). This is one step softer than in 2024 when the C5, C4 and C3 compounds were used.

Pirelli brought softer compounds to this year’s race as “it opens up the possibility of a two-stop strategy”. It reasoned that the same compounds used in 2025 would have led to a one-stop race given the circuit has low levels of grip and wear - although the long straights place significant vertical loads on the tyres.

Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team deputy performance engineer Tim Wright explains what it takes to ace a lap of Baku City Circuit.

Length: 6.003 kilometres

Number of laps: 51

Number of turns: 20

 

Tim Wright: “This might look like a complicated lap but it’s relatively straightforward, because a lot of corners are similar.

 

“In the first part of the lap, the corners are all 90-degree corners. It looks like a low-speed circuit but the speed of those corners is high - it’s not like Monaco where you’re doing 60km/h - and most circuits will have a slower low-speed corner than the average ‘low-speed’ corner in Azerbaijan.

 

“After the 90-degree turns comes the really slow section around the castle that leads to the top of the hill and the downhill section with one high-speed corner, which is Turn 13. With these F1 cars, that corner is generally flat-out or close to it.

“What’s important is track evolution - where grip builds up quickly through sessions - as it’s a street circuit where racing cars don’t run on it all year round.

“Efficiency [the ratio of downforce generated by a car versus drag] is also important in the last sector at Baku as this circuit has a very long start-finish straight.

“Cars therefore need the lowest-downforce rear wing possible to ensure drivers dont lose too much time on the straights.”