[Official] European Grand Prix 2016: Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[Born Racer]

The European Grand Prix has a long history, stretching back to the 1920s. Not everyone will know that it was actually an honorific title given to many important Grands Prix, including Monza, Monaco, Spa, the Nurburgring and Silverstone. In fact, the very first Formula 1 world championship Grand Prix, held in 1950 at Silverstone, had as one of its titles 'Grand Prix of Europe'.

This tradition continued until the late 1970s before Brands Hatch was a fairly last-minute calendar filler for 1983 after a proposed race in New York didn't come off. With a British Grand Prix already on the calendar, the Kent circuit hosted the European Grand Prix. The next year, with Brands hosting the British race, the new Nurburgring was used for the European Grand Prix.

The Nurburgring was also used again as a venue for the European race in the 1990s. There have been some memorable European Grands Prix – Donington Park held its only world championship race in 1993, famous for the rain which fell that day and allowed several drivers, particularly Ayrton Senna to show off their skills, the Brazilian carving his way through the field on the opening lap and going on to dominate the race. In 1997, the European Grand Prix was the season finale and was at Jerez in Spain, as a late replacement for the Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril. The top three on the grid, Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen all got exactly the same fastest time in qualifying, Schumacher tried to take Villeneuve out in the race in a moment of madness and the next year's world champion, Mika Hakkinen won his first Grand Prix.

After another decade of European Grands Prix at the Nurburgring, the venue shifted to Spanish city Valencia, on which a layout was mostly built on roads around the port and a little bit of the city streets. This event was held five times and hardly ever seemed to produce an exciting race. Only the last outing was a thriller.

It seems that there is a new Grand Prix every year and now Azerbaijan steps into the arena with a street race in its capital city Baku. The track takes in the historic quarter and the sea front. It includes a narrow uphill section in the old town and a long section along the seafront of nearly 2.2 kilometres. It is a high-speed track but one which also has a lot of slow corners, a lot of them 90 degrees. This partly makes it a circuit of contrasts – low downforce would of course help here, but there are also a few quick corners where aerodynamic grip will be useful and the slow corners where a higher downforce set-up will be the best. Turns 12 to 15 are quick corners, while the uphill and tight section just before that from Turn 8 looks interesting. The uphill and tight section It looks as though it is going to be quite tough on fuel consumption and on engines.

With Pirelli bringing medium, soft and supersoft tyres to this race, it is quite a conservative choice and almost all drivers have chosen 7 or 8 sets of the supersofts, with more variation in the distribution of softs and mediums.

To join in our predictions contest on Ten-Tenths, go here: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=147271

Our Fantasy F1 contest is here: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146625

Constructors’ championship standings: http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-...standings.html

Drivers’ championship standings: http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-...standings.html

European Grand Prix tyre selections: https://www.formula1.com/content/fom...-for-baku.html

Circuit length: 6.003km
Number of laps: 51
Race distance: 306.049km
First Grand Prix: 2016
Dry weather tyre compounds: Medium, Soft and Supersoft
DRS Detection Zone: After Turn 20
DRS Activation Zone 1: On start-finish straight
DRS Activation Zone 2: Between Turns 2 and 3
Speed Trap: Near the start of the start-finish straight
Lap Record: N/A

[stripedcat]

Great intro, BR - as always. A lot of commentators say that this circuit is like a large Formula E circuit. The circuit layout reminds me a bit of Long Beach - does anyone else agree?

[bella]

to save anyone else searching it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Prix_of_Long_Beach

i see what you mean though!

it's not really what we'd class as a proper circuit, but it has its own challenges and the bits round the castle look epic visually. saw a quote saying it'll reward the brave, and i think that'll certainly be the case in quali and gp2.

[Born Racer]

Thanks, stripedcat. I have to apologise for this one being overly short. I would have liked to have written more about the history of the European Grand Prix and more about the Baku circuit and this new country we're going to, but it's been too busy a week.

I know what you mean about Long Beach from the point of view of the long straight and a curve before a long straight, but there are a lot more corners at Baku.

I agree it will reward those willing to take risks, bella, particularly in qualifying, but it'll punish some mistakes, just like many classic street circuits.. let's see if this proves to be one.

[bella]

i'm not sure if it's rewarding risk takers, more the kind of really precise driver that monaco favours in the twiddly bits and then the smart, tactical driver when it comes to slipstreaming on the straight.

in that respect you'd think it's right up hamilton's street - no pun intended.

magnussen compared it to macau yesterday on social media and he's totally right - some really daft twiddly bits that are like flying a toy helicopter in a toilet cubicle, and the long, wide straight. in one-make stuff that kind of circuit is interesting because you get a mix of downforce strategies leaving some more exposed on the straight and others all at sea in the twiddly bits.

[canamman]

This track is utterly fascinating. A true test for ,imho, the
best drivers in the open wheel world. Amazed at the length
of that straight! I hope they have plenty of cranes in place,
this weekend may be very yellow especially with moisture.

[owrforever]

How on earth did Baku secure a Class 1 rating with that Turn 8-9-10 complex? That's something out of the 1950-60's. How many million dollar cars will be taken out by a circa 1200 castle turret wall? How much money changed hands for the FIA to look the other way?

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by owrforever

How on earth did Baku secure a Class 1 rating with that Turn 8-9-10 complex?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxmCCsMoD0

[bjohnsonsmith]

Great intro as ever.

It's certainly an interesting track layout, let's hope it can produce an equally interesting race.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

At first glance it looks like it should be run the other way around, having the pits at the end of a straight just screams wrong.

Now having watched the free practices I'm not sure if it would be possible or that it would improve safety any.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bella

i'm not sure if it's rewarding risk takers, more the kind of really precise driver that monaco favours in the twiddly bits and then the smart, tactical driver when it comes to slipstreaming on the straight.

in that respect you'd think it's right up hamilton's street - no pun intended.

magnussen compared it to macau yesterday on social media and he's totally right - some really daft twiddly bits that are like flying a toy helicopter in a toilet cubicle, and the long, wide straight. in one-make stuff that kind of circuit is interesting because you get a mix of downforce strategies leaving some more exposed on the straight and others all at sea in the twiddly bits.

Macau meets Pau meets a 90's CART circuit. It's pretty good!

[David A Scott]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Macau meets Pau meets a 90's CART circuit. It's pretty good!

Kinda like Surfer's Paradise

[djinvicta]

I can see some front wings lost and rear right hand tyres blown on that very very narrow slight left hander armco. Which turn is that? It's single file definite..
Turn 3? Towards that castle turret? Nightmare stuff. Single file shunting.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by FIRE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxmCCsMoD0

You can guess where the money went.

[djinvicta]

Probably to the bloke that repairs turn 3 armco afterwards.

[JeremySmith]

Hopefully this venue will grow on me, at this point I am not too convinced. It's a beautiful looking city, the bit around the castle just looks way too tight ..
Did they sell any tickets ? What happened to all the safety concerns that the FIA talk about ?? Firmly out of the window in Baku ..

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by JeremySmith

Hopefully this venue will grow on me, at this point I am not too convinced. It's a beautiful looking city, the bit around the castle just looks way too tight ..
Did they sell any tickets ? What happened to all the safety concerns that the FIA talk about ?? Firmly out of the window in Baku ..

There is Le Mans.

[Richard C]

Been watch P2... The track looks particularly dangerous and slick. The city is beautiful. While they seem to have stands in places, it looks like much of the track has little room for spectators. Assuming nobody gets hurt, it might be an interesting race.

Richard

[Purist]

For the most part, I don't really see anywhere that the risk to the drivers is any greater than Monaco.

That really narrow bit makes up a tiny portion of the lap, and you don't carry much speed there. The straight before the left at Turn 8 isn't that long. Turns 1, 3, and 15 have escape roads. I can't say that those spots worry me any more than the run into Ste. Devote or the Chicane at Monaco.

Impact angle at Tabac would be steeper than in Turns 13 and 14 at Baku, and an impact in those places would likely be no more harsh than clattering the barriers at Massenet. Not having the space for the momentum vector to change as much, or for the wall orientation to change as you go down the track further before you hit it, isn't such a bad thing. Tiago Monteiro faired pretty well in his accident at the Nordschleife this year, and those WTCC cars do NOT have the chassis integrity of an F1 car, plus they weigh quite a bit more.

I think the biggest issue might be that pit entry. If someone is slipstreaming, and ducks out to the left, because that's the inside for Turn 1, that would be bad if there happened to be someone decelerating for that chicane at pit-in. They maybe ought to move the chicane farther down the lane to reduce that hazard.

[FAS33]

Hamilton accusing drivers of moaning too much.

Coming from the biggest whinger in F1 is a bit rich.

[wimiu012uk]

Reminds me of Pau and Macau, there are bound to be teething problems for any new track.
Anyone remember the 'dug-out' pit signalling area at Donnington when it reopened in the 70's with the complete lack of a pit wall to separate the pit straight from the pits ?
All the drivers have to do is drive within the track limits, something many of the new generation cannot remember having to do, having being brought up on tracks with acres of tarmac run-off.
To finish first, first you have to finish.

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by FAS33

Hamilton accusing drivers of moaning too much.

Where? A link would be nice......

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

Where? A link would be nice......

http://www.f1reader.com/news/hamilto...s-147680<br />


Lewis Hamilton says his fellow drivers "moan so much about so many things" after some criticised the layout of the new Baku circuit as well as the bumps.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by wnut

http://www.f1reader.com/news/hamilton-smiles-at-moaning-drivers-147680



Lewis Hamilton says his fellow drivers "moan so much about so many things" after some criticised the layout of the new Baku circuit as well as the bumps.

The problem that the whinger-in-chief (Hamilton) has is that he doesn't listen to what he actually says.

He was also leading the moaning about tyre pressures at Baku; in fact, there doesn't seem to have been any other comments about the pressures from any other driver!

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/pi...ku-789347/?s=1

[bella]

you mean, he's the only one who they asked?

now the temperature has picked up he kind of has a point... but it's an unknown for pirelli as much as it is for the drivers. if the teams sims were pants then pirelli aren't going to have many better options.