Rate the race: 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

37 comments on “Rate the race: 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix”

1. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   12th June 2022, 13:42

   I expected more, but at least better than the inaugural race.
   1. 

      BasCB (@bascb)
      12th June 2022, 21:53

      Yeah, it was certainly no banger @jerejj. But we did get Perez getting past Leclerc on merit. And we got to see a few solid passes (Vettel on Ocon, the second time that is, and Hamilton on Gasly was nicely done too) as well.

      A shame the Ferrari technical issues prevented any serious racing for the top positions though, it could have been a lot better.
      1. 

         Jere (@jerejj)
         13th June 2022, 7:27

         @bascb, I agree.
2. 

   petebaldwin (@)
   12th June 2022, 13:46

   I gave it a 6. Leclerc dropping out killed the race for win when it was looking really interesting was a shame. Max had way too much for Checo today.

   The rest was ok – I can’t get too excited about DRS passes but it was enjoyable enough.
3. 

   Tommy C (@tommy-c)
   12th June 2022, 13:47

   I suppose the race didn’t really live up to the expectation, largely due to Ferrari’s unreliability. Gave it a 6.
4. 

   S
   12th June 2022, 13:48

   3
   Boring.
   1. 

      Nimba (@nimba)
      12th June 2022, 19:56

      3/10 for me too. The first race of this season that I went to sleep watching . last time this happened was Istanbul 2021.
5. 

   Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
   12th June 2022, 13:48

   That was quite boring for a Baku race.
6. 

   Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
   12th June 2022, 13:53

   Some decent competition in the midfield, but unfortunately the podium was cemented by Leclerc’s retirement. Also not looking good for the championship. Gave the race a 5 overall.
7. 

   albo94
   12th June 2022, 13:55

   Worst race of the season by quite a margin = 4/10.
   Without the Ferrari there is no battle for the win. I hope they can fix reliability problems and give us a championship battle.
   By the way, this track doesn’t really suit these new gen cars
8. 

   t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
   12th June 2022, 13:56

   A bit dull, usually one of the races I look forward to but nothing much happened once the Ferraris DNF’d.
9. 

   Broke1984 (@broke1984)
   12th June 2022, 13:59

   5. Just an average race and I must admit I’m not enjoying the season so far. Still only a 2 team battle and it’s made boring with retirements, every time there’s a race on either Verstappen or Leclerc retires, it’s annoying
   1. 

      theRealMax (@millionus)
      12th June 2022, 14:04

      This is my frustration. Apart from last year feels like it’s been like this for a while. Just when you think there’s a battle, someone retires, or doesn’t qualify well or some other issue which robs you of seeing the best battle each other.
   2. 

      FW11B (@fw11b)
      12th June 2022, 16:12

      100% agreed

      This is what usually happens when there is a major technical overhaul, either one or two teams are far ahead of the rest or reliability becomes the x-factor. If F1 wants more competitiveness they should freeze the rules for at least a decade rather than change it after seeing signs of dominance. I think 2022 would have been better of the cars were similar to last year.
10. 

    Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
    12th June 2022, 14:02

    6/10
    You seem to think that you have seen everything in the sports and then comes a half DRS.
    Well done Red Bull. Seems Verstappen is setting up cars more for Sunday and Perez more for Saturday.
    Tough luck for Ferrari. These DNFs will bite back heavily if Mercedes can solve their bouncing problems. The Mercedes onboards from Hamilton’s car on the long straights were painful to watch even. Could not understand the strategy at Mclaren and Norris was right to question the hold call. Good race from Gasly, Alonso and Vettel. Super drive from Russel.
11. 

    Ajaxn
    12th June 2022, 14:08

    I think race Mercedes was testing the engine at this race, at least on Hamilton’s car. Previously there was no point pushing the engine because of the porpoising at the higher speeds, now the issues is the car bottoming out at the higher speeds.

    All very useful as data but it wont be doing their drivers any good. Painfull to watch. No one can say Hamilton isn’t giving 101%.
12. 

    Sham (@sham)
    12th June 2022, 14:13

    Really dull. The more I see, the more I think these cars are having a negative impact on the racing.
13. 

    RandomMallard
    12th June 2022, 14:15

    5 or 6. Part of Baku’s almost perfect series of alternating between boring and very high drama (the most drama today was of course Leclerc’s failure), 2017 and 2018 being the exception in the pattern. Bodes well for next year though I guess!
14. 

    rwpanda37
    12th June 2022, 14:28

    5. Boring after Leclerc retired. I fear that we are going to have a lot of dull races this year with the significant pace advantage of the RBs/Ferraris, particularly if Charles/Max retire, as the other will simply drive into the distance. Sainz will rarely be a factor and I know Checo has done well recently, but let’s be realistic, he’s more often than not 15-25s behind Max at the end of most races. I hope I’m massively wrong and that Sainz/Perez up their pace and Mercesdes somehow turn it around.
15. 

    rwpanda37
    12th June 2022, 14:29

    Agree. If one retires, Perez/Sainz will very rarely have the pace to make a race of it, meaning Verstappen/Leclerc drive into the distance before cruising to victory.
16. 

    MichaelN
    12th June 2022, 14:38

    A pretty boring affair, but on a positive note Le Mans is still on!

    So far it seems the F1 season peaked in the first race in Bahrain, with an honorable mention to the race in Saudi Arabia.

    There was a more interesting championship with the old regulations than with these supposedly amazing next-gen F1 cars.
    1. 

       albo94
       13th June 2022, 9:31

       It was never going to be a revolution. Just an improvement, which is more visible on ‘real tracks’ like Spain.
17. 

    Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
    12th June 2022, 14:39

    Middle of the road. 5. Nothing really happened and what did, made the race worse.
    Interesting to note that the changes made to the cars made baku dreadful, following is indeed a lot easier and the drag is a lot lower and so slipstreaming is awful, on a track like baku this combo makes racing worse.
18. 

    Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
    12th June 2022, 14:57

    Rather dull, especially for this track
19. 

    MG1982 (@mg1982)
    12th June 2022, 15:02

    5.

    The race was “dead” after LEC’s retirement. On TV it looked like a pretty clean race for Baku, not a classic for sure.

    Sad but true, I think the champs are over. In my opinion, overall, RBR is now obviously the car to beat. It seems to have the edge in race trim, so for me it’s not 100% sure LEC would have won in Spain or maybe today considering no DNFs for him. Yes, the chances for a win were high even today for LEC since VER was like +12sec behind and barely closing the gap although he had like 10 laps fresher tyres, but I’m not 100% convinced. Then, apart from the fact that RBR seems to have the edge in race trim, Ferrari also has serious reliability issues. 4 out of 6 cars powered by them retired this race! Now they have just as much tech-related DNFs as RBR, but in general almost twice more DNFs. In the last couple of races too, there were multiple PU related issues for all the Ferrari powered teams. Even if Ferrari won’t have reliability issues anymore, the chances to turn things around are low. LEC will just have to be driver to win most races left, and significant more races than VER. That’s simply because the wins are just a VER-LEC-PER “affair” and if LEC will start to close the gap to VER, RBR will make sure PER will always finish behind VER. Plus, LEC has to fight both RBRs, then some penalties are coming for him without doubt in the last part of the season… therefore really skeptical LEC/Ferrari has what it takes to come on top this season.
    Unfortunately for PER and his fans, Horner today assured everybody again that the reality is there’s no equality at RBR and the WDC is for VER, when he told PER not to attack VER. But VER (and LEC too, despite the start) seemed too strong for PER today anyway, the 20sec gap at the end I guess speaks for itself. So, even without team orders, to consider PER a real threat to VER in the WDC, although his performances are very good, I think requires way too much optimism.
    1. 

       Esploratore (@esploratore1)
       13th June 2022, 2:57

       Yes, I thought so too when leclerc retired and didn’t change my mind after.
    2. 

       Esploratore (@esploratore1)
       13th June 2022, 2:58

       And true, both in spain and here would’ve been interesting to see leclerc continue, it’s not obvious at all he’d have won.
20. 

    baasbas
    12th June 2022, 15:24

    Lot of harsh replies here I feel. I don’t disagree on it being on the boring side but I feel this is mostly due to Ferrari DNFs. I don’t understand the complaints about the cars on this track. Watching Verstappen trying to get close enough on Leclerc seemed good to me. The performance was close enough for a great battle for top 4. Then there was a mix of strategies with the early Leclerc pit. And around the field you could see more following more closely. Plenty of battles in the field. But they had to work pretty hard for most of them. Don’t know what happened to the McLaren strategist though…
    1. 

       Esploratore (@esploratore1)
       13th June 2022, 2:56

       At least leclerc’s issue, I don’t see how sainz was in the race at all without his problem.
21. 

    Prashanth Ramadas
    12th June 2022, 15:56

    This cheko is a master in confusion.
22. 

    Ronald (@mosquito)
    12th June 2022, 16:23

    It looked to become a real nailbiter after the Leclerc pitstop under VSC. Due to Ferrari being Ferrari we were robbed of this. Still it wasn ‘t a complete disaster in my opinion. A solid 7 for me.
23. 

    Jim from US (@jimfromus)
    12th June 2022, 22:00

    3. More interesting than Monaco but not much. Easy to pass in the 2nd DRS zone so the final positions are in order of the cars’ capability. The best part for me was that the coverage only showed the spectators a few times. Also, Ferrari garages empty and everything packed up with 10 laps to go was pathetic. Might need to shoot the horse and change the logo to a Check Engine Light.
24. 

    slowmo (@slowmo)
    12th June 2022, 23:11

    Gave it a 5, unfortunately the Ferrari retirements killed any hint of contest. The 2 vsc periods did at least produce a mix of strategies. I don’t mind the track, just a shame the win was uncontested.
25. 

    Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
    13th June 2022, 0:39

    Could only give this a 5. Quite disappointing for Baku.

    After the Ferraris retired there was no race at the front. One or two half decent battles in midfield but the passes were usually a forgone conclusion due to DRS.

    A poor weekend for the Ferrari engine. 4 retirements out of 6 cars.
26. 

    Esploratore (@esploratore1)
    13th June 2022, 2:55

    1 (3%)
    2 (5%)
    3 (13%)
    4 (9%)
    5 (27%)
    6 (24%)
    7 (16%)
    8 (2%)
    9 (1%)
    10 (1%)
    Total Voters: 140

    I went for 7 and as the poll shows it was prob even too generous, if leclerc hadn’t retired it could’ve been more interesting, but the battle for the lead was non-existant in this case, with verstappen having so much more pace than perez, usually races here are quite chaotic but not much happened, although there were some recoveries and overtakes, such as hamilton, vettel, magnussen.
27. 

    ECWDanSelby (@ecwdanselby)
    13th June 2022, 10:28

    Big ol’ 5 from me, dull by Baku standards. Promised a lot, didn’t deliver.
28. 

    Oleg
    13th June 2022, 12:08

    22 overtakings was in this race

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