The Battle in Baku

After strategy errors in Monaco for scarlet Ferrari leading to an unexpected win for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, the importance of strategy was front of mind for the Aston Martin F1™ Team at the Baku City grand prix this past weekend.

Street races are often much cause for excitement in the F1 calendar, whilst they don’t provide the same overtaking opportunities presented on dedicated racing tracks, due to the tight and unforgiving designs – the risks that the drivers take have to be more calculated, as the decision to brake a little later can be the difference between a fantastic overtake and ending up in a barrier.

Unlike Monaco, the Baku City Circuit is much quicker and with average speeds over the course of a lap more than 200km/h… (just imagine averaging those speeds on your drive to work – as these are the types of roads that they navigate (potholes, manhole covers, drains, curbs. Etc) meaning that the teams will need to get a car setup that will be the correct balance between speed, handling and acceleration.

Last year’s Baku grand prix, certainly saw this unforgiving nature throw an unexpected outcome. Sergio Perez won the race after Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen crashed out of the lead with a tyre failure and Lewis Hamilton made a mistake following a red-flag restart. Verstappen’s crash resulted in the race being suspended three laps later, setting up a two-lap sprint to the flag at the end. Vettel was able to take advantage of this opportunity and record his first podium since joining Aston Martin from Ferrari at the start of the year.

The 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was dominated in the latter stages by Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who went on to take the race win and extend his world championship lead as Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz both suffered engine problems and had to retire. Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez finished second after originally taking the lead from Leclerc on the opening lap of the race, whilst Mercedes' George Russell took the last spot on the podium. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel finished in sixth place, scoring crucial points and the team’s best position of the season so far.

Like day-to-day life in the business world Formula 1 teams are constantly having to manage risks (which can be both good and bad) in order to achieve the optimum result. IFS Cloud is proud to support the  Aston Martin F1™ Team in this process and knows how in race weekends like this it is more important than ever that we can support their critical thinking with real-time information.

Away from the track IFS Cloud is also used by companies across all industries to define their digital strategy and make real-time business improvements. The latest of which will be being showcased at IFS Unleashed this year in Miami, so make sure you have booked your place to the number 1 event this October.

Dan Talbot, Senior Manager - Industry Marketing & ABM (and part-time IFS F1 Correspondent).