Ferrari arrive in Baku with a car quick enough to run at the front and a season that keeps saying otherwise. A run of races without a podium, a growing gap in both championships, and a diagnosis from outside the team that the problem is not lap time.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur has set his target for the weekend around execution rather than raw speed. “Baku presents a very different challenge, where confidence in the car and execution will be particularly important,” he said in Ferrari’s Azerbaijan preview.
“In recent races, our car has shown a good level of competitiveness, but we’ve also seen how important it is to get every aspect of the weekend right.”
Vasseur pointed to the circuit itself as the main source of the risk. “It’s also a track where the weekend can be full of variables and unpredictable, so we’ll need to stay focused on ourselves, adapt to any situation, and try to make the most of every opportunity.”
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Rosberg names the pit wall
The pressure on Vasseur’s phrase “every aspect” is not accidental. Speaking on Sky’s F1 Show podcast after the Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring, Nico Rosberg pointed at the same fault line, and he was blunt about where it sits.
“It’s just the Achilles heel is still in the strategy area, communications area, that’s always been a weakness and still is a weakness of theirs now,” Rosberg said.
“The pace of the car is damn close to being able to challenge consistently for race wins,” he added, arguing that Ferrari “are just not putting it together properly.”
Madrid was the illustration. Charles Leclerc led 35 laps and finished fourth, 24 seconds behind podium-getter Lando Norris, after Ferrari left him on the hard tyre through a long first stint and switched to softs only with seven laps to go. Lewis Hamilton retired early with a brake failure. Twelve points from a weekend where the pace suggested more.
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The championship math
The scoreboard has moved with the weekends. After the Spanish Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli led the drivers’ championship on 292 points, with George Russell on 211, Hamilton on 191 and Leclerc on 167. Ferrari sit second in the constructors’ standings on 358 points, 145 behind Mercedes and 52 clear of McLaren.
The 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix runs over 51 laps of the 6.003-kilometre Baku City Circuit, a layout that pairs a long main straight with a tight, twisty middle sector and forces a set-up compromise between straight-line speed and cornering grip.
The Grand Prix takes place on Saturday, 26 September, with qualifying the day before.
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