Pirelli takes softest tyres to Baku: Advantage for Red Bull and Verstappen?

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix will be held on the Baku street circuit again this year, and Pirelli is bringing the softest tyres available this year. An advantage for Mercedes or for Red Bull Racing?

Soft tyres from Pirelli

The Azerbaijan GP can be very exciting, but at times it can also be a boring parade. It has parts that resemble the Monaco street circuit, but with the extremely long straights the same top speeds are achieved as at Monza. It's a unique combination and that's also a challenge for tyre suppliers Pirelli.

''From one unique circuit to another: Baku provides a very different test to Monaco, but the precision needed to stay out of trouble is similar. For the first time we bring the very softest tyres in the range to Azerbaijan, as also seen in Monte Carlo. The reason for this nomination is that the hard wasn’t used at all in the Baku race in 2019, whereas the medium was used extensively,'' says Mario Isola in Pirelli's press release.

Benefit for Red Bull?

''By re-aligning the nominations, we hope to see all three compounds playing an important role and leading to some different strategies. In Formula 2, there’s a step between the compounds, just as was the case at the opening round in Bahrain. This creates a bigger differential between the tyres, and again leads to some entertaining racing and tactics, on a challenging circuit that’s renowned for being a place where anything can happen,'' concludes the Pirelli chief.

For Red Bull this is probably good news. In recent years Mercedes has been very strong on Pirelli's hard tyres, whereas Red Bull has been better on the soft tyres. This seemed to be the case again in Monaco. However, with the long straights, Mercedes can also make up a lot with their strong engine, so never rule out the Germans.