A Look Back: Azerbaijan
We reflect on Albono’s previous trips to Baku
Published
11 Sep 2024
Est Reading Time
2 min
Alex will be targeting a top 10 finish in Azerbaijan, after narrowly missing out on his last three visits to Baku.
He was just one place away from claiming points back in 2019, during his maiden Formula 1 campaign with Red Bull Toro Rosso.
AA23 then registered consecutive P12 finishes in 2022 and 2023 while driving for Williams, so will be hoping to finally get on the board this time around.
Last year’s stint at the Baku City Circuit saw Albono start 12th on the grid, after putting in commendable performance during the Sprint race earlier in the weekend (P9).
But a pair of unfortunate incidents stopped him from improving on that starting position.
Firstly, he was pinched on the inside of the second corner in the race’s opening exchanges, resulting in the loss of his front wing endplate.
Then, an early decision to switch tyres proved to be a disadvantage when a full safety car was deployed just a couple of laps later — allowing other cars to pit at a less costly moment.
Though AA23 did well to climb ahead of Zhou Guanyu into P14 — and later past Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon — with the damage to his FW45, he was unable to make enough progress to achieve a positive result.
Speaking after the race, Alex said:
“It was really tough out there today.
“I had some damage on my front wing for most of the race following contact with the McLaren, so there was a lot of management to do.
“It was tricky trying to keep the Haas behind me whilst staying close to Oscar [Piastri], and not a lot of room for overtaking with the shortened DRS zones.”
Albono will be hoping for some better fortune when he heads to the shores of the Caspian Sea this weekend.
And he can draw inspiration from his first ever Formula 2 win back in 2018, when he started in pole position before going on to secure top spot in Baku.
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