The race in Baku now live!

Will Bearman score points on his Haas debut?

He made it into the top 10 on his Formula 1 debut for Ferrari, and today he is driving his first race for Haas. And starting from tenth place he is in a good position to score points again.

Expert Ralf Schumacher reveals Heaven: “He was with me for a year in Formula 4.” [im Team]. He is someone who can learn incredibly quickly, has understanding, but also has racing cleverness.

“That means: starting situations, he always finds the gap, takes risks, but not too much. He likes street circuits, that suits his racing style. And that’s why I think it wasn’t quite so easy for Nico, who doesn’t like the track here either.”

In qualifying yesterday, Bearman finished ahead of his experienced teammate Nico Hülkenberg. Will he be able to do it again today?

Will Leclerc break the deadlock?

Charles Leclerc then started from pole position in a race in Baku for the fifth time in a row (including the sprint last year). However, he has never won in Azerbaijan – and that is no coincidence.

Since Baku was added to the Formula 1 calendar in 2016, the race has only been won from pole twice. Nico Rosberg managed it on the track’s debut, and Valtteri Bottas did it again in 2019.

In the last three main races, the winner did not even start from the front row. Sergio Perez (2023) and Max Verstappen (2022) both won from P3, and in 2021 Perez even took the win after starting from P6.

You can also read everything in our large database!

Weather

There is still an hour and a half until the start in Baku, and things are slowly getting hot. We take a quick look at the weather and can sum it up: rain is not expected today either.

Anyone hoping for some chaos in the race will have to rely on a safety car rather than the weather gods…

Podium for Mick Schumacher

Meanwhile, we have some good news to report from the World Endurance Championship (WEC) from a German perspective. Mick Schumacher has achieved his first podium finish. You can read all about it here!

Rookies sprint even this year?

Could the rookies sprint be coming this year? A few weeks ago, a new idea was developed to give young drivers the opportunity to prove themselves in a Formula 1 car.

After the season, a sprint race will take place in Abu Dhabi, where the rookies can compete against each other. You can read all the background information here!

Severe Formula 2 crash

Formula 2 is currently racing in Baku and there was a serious crash at the start. A car stopped at the start and a rear-end collision occurred, in which the young German driver Oliver Goethe was also involved.

The race has just been stopped, but fortunately all the drivers involved were uninjured. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that there are no more serious accidents today.

Punishment unavoidable

As a reminder, Lewis Hamilton suffered an engine failure at the very beginning of the season in Australia, so it was clear that he would need an additional power source at some point during the year.

Now Mercedes has also decided to impose the inevitable grid penalty here in Baku – probably in the hope that they will be able to overtake on the long straights here.