SPORTS
Esteban Ocon ahead of Azerbaijan Grand-Prix - Forward thinking
Baku, June 2, AZERTAC
Esteban Ocon made it four consecutive points-scoring finishes after his ninth place in Monaco, according to automobilsport.com.
Baku is next - a street circuit, which boasts some very unique features, where Esteban targets to add more points to his season tally.
“I like racing in Baku. It’s a very unusual circuit where, as we’ve seen in the past, anything can happen. It’s an interesting layout with the long straights, followed by some very challenging and closely spaced corners in sector two.
We go from one street circuit in Monaco, a short lap and difficult for overtaking, to Baku, another street circuit, which is almost opposite as it’s long with plenty of overtaking spots.
The atmosphere at these city-based street circuits is always great. Everything feels really close to the track and you can feel the sensation of speed even more,” Esteban Ocon said.
It’s a circuit where you can see three or more cars go wheel to wheel down the straights, which, on a street track, is incredible. That’s what makes the race in Baku so exciting as there are opportunities to make some places.
It’s a bit tricky on finding the right balance between straight line speed for the straights while not taking too much downforce off the car to allow you to make up lap-time through some of the slower corners,” the Alpine F1 team driver mentioned.
“I left Monaco feeling reasonably pleased. We’ve made it four points-scoring finishes in a row, and we want to keep that going. Monaco underlined some areas we need to improve. We had expected to be more competitive than what we achieved, so we go to Baku aiming to put ourselves higher inside the top ten.
I’ve not been to Baku for a couple of years and, like last weekend, I’ll build up my confidence in the car through the practice session,” he added.