Leclerc has qualified fastest at the Baku City Circuit four times in a row. He has never won there.

Between 2021 and 2024 he stood on pole in Azerbaijan every single year, a streak no other driver has matched at the venue. A power-unit failure ended his 2022 race from the front row. In 2023 he finished third. In 2024 he was beaten to the win by Oscar Piastri. The 2025 streak broke with a Q3 crash.

That is the story Ferrari are now planning to walk straight back into, and on their own terms.

Ferrari’s calculated hit

Leclerc will take a grid penalty at Baku after Ferrari fit a fresh power unit before qualifying. The damaged engine from his crash at Monza has been cleared for reuse after checks found no terminal damage, and the team plan to keep it for practice sessions rather than scrap it.

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Team principal Frédéric Vasseur had already floated Baku as the natural venue for the penalty when he spoke to Canal+ during the Madrid weekend.

“We’ll see when we have to take an engine penalty with Charles, but I think Baku should go quite well,” Vasseur said.

The logic is straightforward. The start-finish stretch on Neftchilar Avenue runs for 2.2km, roughly twice the length of the main straight at Monza and comfortably the longest on the F1 calendar. Cars top 360km/h before the heavy braking zone at Turn 1. Overtaking is not a hope at Baku, it is a routine.

The Antonelli precedent

Ferrari have a very fresh piece of evidence for the strategy.

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At Monza on 6 September, Andrea Kimi Antonelli started 19th after taking his own engine penalty and finished the race in first place, beating Mercedes team-mate George Russell in the closing laps. It was the sort of comeback drive that reframes a grid penalty as an opportunity rather than a punishment, so long as the circuit cooperates.

Baku, on paper, cooperates more than most.

Race day moves to Saturday 26 September

There is one calendar quirk on top of the sporting one. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix will be run on Saturday 26 September rather than the usual Sunday, after promoters and the Azerbaijani government asked the FIA to move the race to avoid a clash with Remembrance Day. Practice and qualifying have been brought forward across the weekend.

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