Formula Racing
Check out this detailed guide to the Baku City Circuit for formula racing
Formula 2 driver Jehan Daruvala explains how to take on the famous street circuit so you can put in your fastest lap times in a formula car.
Jehan Daruvala is currently the only Indian driver in Formula 2, which works as a feeder series for Formula 1.
Competing in his third season, the 23-year-old from Mumbai is sitting in the third place on the F2 leaderboard for 2022. He has 53 points from five race weekends so far.
Jehan is now gearing up for the F2 race in Baku, Azerbaijan which will be held at the Baku City Circuit from 10th to 12th June 2022. The race is held on a temporary street circuit, 6.003km in length, that runs through the historic city centre of the Azerbaijani capital.
“The things that excites us drivers about street circuits is that there is no real margin for error,” says Jehan, who is in the Red Bull Junior driver programme. “A small lock-up, or if you push too hard, you end up in the wall. The risk to reward ratio is quite high. It’s almost like driving in the wet, where every single lap you do matters and helps you build on to the next lap. We have to get our eyes in and then when we feel comfortable, we push our boundaries.”
It is one of the fastest circuits on the F2 calendar, but can get extremely narrow in stretches (it is only 7.6m wide at its narrowest point) and has a lot of 90 degree turns. The standout feature, however, is the main straight along the shoreline, where drivers can go flat out for almost two kilometeres.
With only days to go before the Baku F2 race, the Indian driver takes us through one of his favourite tracks:
Starting line and first straight
The main straight and turn 1 at Baku City Circuit
© Getty Images | Red Bull Content Pool
The lap begins down the longest flat out stretch on the Formula 2 calendar with speeds reaching 330 km/h as we cross the start-finish line.
Turn 1
Stay to the right of the track as you approach the corner, which is a second-gear 90-degree left hander. Given the high speed, getting the braking right is absolutely crucial but it’s extremely tricky to spot the braking point. You always want to brake as late as possible, but leave it too late and you’ll be forced to go straight down the run off area, ruining your lap.
Turn 2
After Turn 1 you have a short straight stretch leading to another second-gear 90-degree left-hander at Turn 2. The exit out of this corner is important because it leads onto a long straight which is also the first of the two DRS zones.
Turn 3
This is another 90-degree left-hander. You have to swing over to the left-hand side of the track soon.
Turn 4
After exiting Turn 3, you set yourself up another 90-degree corner, but a right-hander this time.
Jehan racing in Baku in 2021
© Dutch Photo Agency | Red Bull Content Pool
Turn 5 and 6
A short straight leads into the Turn 5 and 6 sequence. This is a left-right chicane and you have to be careful about not riding the curbs too hard. It’s also tempting to get on the power early but you have to be patient as there’s not much grip at the exit and you don’t want to slam into the wall.
Turn 7
There are 19 corners on the Baku circuit and all of the corners are taken in second gear in F2 cars, except for Turn 7 which is in first gear. It is also a right-hander. It’s tricky to pick the right line through this corner because its radius is slightly inconsistent. Your instincts tell you to go for a late turn-in but you have to commit to an early apex if you want to maximise it.
Castle section (turns 8 through 12)
Yuki Tsunoda drives his AlphaTauri through the castle section in 2021
© Getty Images | Red Bull Content Pool
Now we come to the most unique section of the track – the castle section – comprising the Turn 8-9-10-11-12 sequence of corners.
It is one of the narrowest sections that exist in F2. There’s literally only place for one car; two cars definitely can’t go through side-by-side. We drive through a really tiny passageway in a castle at really high speed. It feels really tight especially when you drive, but that is the most unique part of this track.
The track narrows dramatically through this section and negotiating it is like threading the eye of a needle. The track also climbs steeply through this section and Turn 11, at the crest, is an unsighted corner.
This series of corners feeds into each other so it’s important to get the line right from Turn 8 itself otherwise you compromise your run through the whole section.
Turn 13 and 14
The exit out of Turn 12 is especially important as it feeds you out onto a long, flat-out stretch which takes you through left-handed kinks of Turns 13 and 14. You can lose a lot of time here if you don’t get the exit of Turn 12 correct.
Turn 15
The next corner – the Turn 15 left-hander – is again quite tricky. The track starts to descend and you’re carrying a lot of speed as you approach this corner. Getting the braking point correct can gain or lose you a lot of time. You want to carry a lot of momentum through the corner but it’s easy to misjudge and overdo it as the corner looks faster than it actually is.
Jehan racing in Baku in 2021
© Dutch Photo Agency | Red Bull Content Pool
Turn 16
The track continues to drop as you exit Turn 15 and approach another fast left-hander at 16. There is a lot of run off at this corner and again it’s very tempting to carry a lot of speed through it. But you have to be disciplined about it as it’s a negative camber corner with not much grip and it can easily spit you out wide.
Running wide out of 16 is something you absolutely don’t want to do. Turn 16 feeds you out onto the long flat-out stretch that brings you back to the start-finish line.
This is the longest flat-out section on the calendar so you want to get on the power early and really maximise the exit, otherwise it can cost you a lot of speed and time down the straight.
Turn 17-18-19-20
These are all flat out and you have to take the straightest line possible through them, with minimal steering inputs, to avoid loading the car up too much and scrubbing off speed. Then it’s back around to the start-finish line to start another lap.