Louis targeting F2 points at Baku City Circuit
Switzerland’s Louis Delétraz is keen to make up for lost time when the second round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship gets underway at the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan this weekend (27-29 April).
The Charouz Racing System driver battled with a technical issue that affected the handling of his ADS Securities-supported car and caused the tyres to wear faster than normal at round one in Bahrain earlier this month.
With that issue now resolved and all of his pre-event preparation successfully completed, Louis, who celebrated his 21st birthday earlier this week, is hoping he’ll be able to push for points and potential podiums in Azerbaijan this weekend.
“We have done a lot of analysis since Bahrain and we have seen some things that we’re very happy with. We also understand what happened to my car and I’m pleased that’s now sorted and in the past,” he explained.
“If I take away the technical issue that I had in Bahrain, I think I maybe missed a good 15 or 20 points during the two races and that’s a shame. But that’s motorsport. Sometimes an issue can take things out of your control.
“I really enjoyed the Baku track last season – the first time I’d driven on a street circuit – so I’m really motivated to well this weekend and make up for the time and points we lost in Bahrain.”
The newly-constructed 6km Baku City Circuit was first used in 2016. Although it’s a classified as a street circuit, some sections of the track are very wide and a pair of long straights – measuring 1km and 2.2km respectively – have led Louis to describe the track as “a bit like Monza but on normal roads”.
He said: “It’s a really impressive track because of the high speeds. Although the F2 car has more downforce this year, we’ll probably be slightly slower on the straights than we were in the old car. But the way we’ll be able to attack the corners will be really great – especially under heavy braking.”
Another notable difference to other circuits on the F2 calendar is the relatively low tyre degradation that the cars tend to suffer on the Baku City Circuit. If this proves to be the case again this weekend, Louis expects he’ll be able to push hard in both the Feature and Sprint races.
“We’re learning lots about the new F2 car with every session and we saw there was slightly less deg in Bahrain than there was in 2017,” he explained. “In Baku, there was hardly any deg last year so I think we should be able to attack with every lap this weekend and take the tyre deg factor out of the game. It will be great to race like that!”
Louis’ weekend in Baku will start with Free Practice at 11.00 on Friday, while Qualifying will get underway at 15.00 on the same day. The 29-lap Feature Race starts at 12.00 on Saturday, while the 21-lap Sprint Race starts at 13.10.
