Welcome to the 4th race of the 2023 Formula 1 season where we return from the Spring break and head over to Baku in Azerbaijan for the first street venue on the F1 calendar.
The Spring break offered teams a much needed rest and opportunity to focus on car upgrades and modifications in order to extract the smallest of milliseconds from these extraordinary machines in hopes of scoring points and winning races. Will these upgrades spring fruit? Or will teams like Mercedes and Ferrari continue to struggle? UK bookmaker William Hill has the latest odds!
※ Current Odds Date & Time: April 24th, 2:00 P.M. (EST)
The odds for this week’s race are somewhat expected. However, there are telltale signs of what the bookmakers expect from teams following their upgrades over the course of the Spring break. Following up on this, as always, we have Max Verstappen as the absolute favourite to win the Azerbaijan GP with the odds on him priced at only 1.40. He’s followed by Sergio Perez in 2nd place who comes in at the price of 6.00.
What is interesting however is that both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have better chances with the bookmakers to win this week’s race than Ferrari does. It would seem that the new upgrades to the W14 challenger give hope to Mercedes fans that this is what it takes to get closer to the top and perhaps challenge for race wins.
The Circuit
The circuit for the Azerbaijan GP is the Baku City Circuit located in the capital city of Baku. The Baku City Circuit is a 6.003 km long track featuring 51 laps covering an average distance of 306.049 km. With 20 high speed corners, the track has 2 DRS zones for drivers to use and maximize their overtaking potential. The current lap record was set in 2019 by Charles Leclerc at 1:43:009.
The circuit’s first ever GP was held not so long ago, in 2016 to be precise. Some of the recent winners at this track include Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel.
What to Expect?
Expectations for this weekend’s race will be on Mercedes and their aero upgrades, which are likely to feature side-pod shape alterations and fine aerodynamic tuning, if rumours are correct that is. Team principal, Toto Wolff, stated earlier:
“We will consistently be bringing upgrades to the car over the next few races, which is something to look forward to. But there is no such thing as a magic bullet that transforms the car, and it’s about being realistic with your expectations. Hopefully we will see a steady improvement.”
Another team to watch out for is Ferrari. Both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc said that this Spring break was an early present for Ferrari as it gave them much needed time to reflect and regroup ahead of the next part of the season.
However, will it be enough? Without any significant upgrades coming to Baku, is there a realistic chance of fighting for podiums, let alone race wins? Ferrari’s team principal, Fred Vasseur, was very realistic when it comes to Baku predictions stating:
“I think we’ll have some small updates coming in the next week, but honestly, I don’t think that it’s coming for the potential [to improve us].”
It would seem that Ferrari fans will have to wait just a bit longer to see their favourite team back on top once more.
