Baku’s active aero map is deliberately small. When the field lines up on Saturday, drivers will be able to flatten their front and rear wings in only two places on the 6.003-kilometre lap: a short blast between Turns 2 and 3 and the long run from Turn 20 all the way down the 2.2-kilometre main straight into Turn 1.
Everywhere else, cars stay in the high-downforce configuration built for the concrete-walled second sector, where the old city section winds down to slow, blind corners.
Straight Mode replaced DRS in this year’s regulations. The rear-wing flap that only opened for a car within a second of the one ahead is gone. In its place, both wings drop to a low-drag setting inside designated zones, and every driver on the circuit can use them on every lap.
Fewer zones than Melbourne or Spa
Baku sits near the bottom of the season’s zone count. Australia’s opening round ran with five zones, and Belgium matched it. Monaco used none. The Baku call puts the emphasis on how efficiently teams can hold their electrical energy through the long main-straight activation before the heavy braking box at Turn 1.
That balance is the fine print of the weekend. Ferrari’s SF-26, according to Scuderiafans, will have to arrive at Turn 1 with strong acceleration, an efficient aerodynamic configuration and sufficient electrical energy available. The failure mode is the super-clipping effect that thins power delivery near the end of the straight.
Antonelli holds an 81-point lead
The technical detail matters because of what is riding on it. Antonelli sits on 292 points after his win in Madrid, 81 clear of Mercedes teammate George Russell after 14 rounds, with eight wins, six poles and twelve podiums this season.
The title itself will not be settled in Azerbaijan. Even if Antonelli takes maximum points and Russell scores none, the earliest event where he could technically be crowned World Champion is the Singapore Grand Prix in October. What Baku decides is whether that Singapore window opens as a live scenario or a distant one.
Race pulled forward to Saturday
The Grand Prix has been moved off its usual Sunday slot out of respect for Azerbaijan’s Remembrance Day on September 27, the national day dedicated to those killed in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. The 51-lap race starts at 3pm local time on Saturday, September 26, with qualifying at 4pm local time on Friday and the two opening practice sessions running through Thursday.
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