Azerbaijan Grand Prix is a good track for BWT Alpine F1 Team seeing as both drivers highest placing is sixth place for each driver. Esteban Ocon came in sixth place in 2017 and Fernando Alonso came in sixth in 2021. Renault engine cars have provided their drivers with one win, one podium and seventy-five points from twenty-two starts at the Baku City Circuit.
Otmar Szafnauer said, “Baku is a tricky challenge for setting up the car as it’s important to have a high top- speed to be competitive on the long straights. The middle part of the track has some slow-speed corners, so it’s a tough balance to find”
Alonso did well to hold up the cars behind him to finish seventh overall, holding back Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas. Ocon must have forgotten he is a Mercedes driver, he had a disagreement with Hamilton. Therefore, he finished in twelfth place after his penalty.
The Alpine team principle added, “it was a good weekend for learning, and we can take forward this knowledge to further improve our car at different types of circuits. Again, our car qualified well with both drivers showing potential of being in and around the top six.
We’re yet to execute an optimal weekend from start to finish – Friday to Sunday – and show our true potential. We’re looking forward to racing this weekend and the target is to come away from this double header with four points- scoring finishes, if not more”
Otmar also stated, “It’s a track that brings thrilling racing with overtaking opportunities aplenty, areas of risk and reward for the drivers and there’s always potential for big opportunities there, which, we must aim to be in a position to take. We have a couple of circuit-specific modified aerodynamic upgrades for this weekend before activating the next batch of upgrades as part of our 2022 development plan.”
