Ferrari focuses on the straights in Baku: "Power is essential"

The long straights of the Baku City Circuit seem to suit the RB18 of Red Bull Racing. Ferrari, therefore, fears that its superior cornering speed will not be enough to bend the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to its will, and so the Italian racing team is targeting the long straights in Baku this weekend.

Nicola Bariselli works as track operations manager in Ferrari's engine department and can therefore tell you a thing or two about the team's power unit, which has so far lost out to Red Bull's in terms of top speed.

Ferrari wants to compensate disadvantage

Ferrari hopes to compensate for that disadvantage by targeting its setup on the enormously long straight in Baku, Bariselli explained on the official website of the team. The goal is to find a configuration that allows the cars to be fast on the straight but still have enough downforce for the slower corners in the first two sectors, where the F1-75 normally excels.

"The nature of the circuit means that the power unit has to be versatile. The driver wants it to be nicely driveable in the tight and slow sections without however wasting energy, as it’s essential to be able to deploy it down the long straights," Barricelli said.