BWT Alpine Formula One Team opens a three-race run with this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Formula One’s first flyaway event since May. Both Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto arrive at the Baku City Circuit with good memories of the venue and a run of points finishes to protect. The team’s junior drivers face an unusually crowded schedule, with FIA Formula 2 adding an extra Feature Race to the weekend.
Formula One leaves Europe behind this weekend for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the first of three races in a row for BWT Alpine Formula One Team. It is also the championship’s first flyaway event since May, closing the door on the packed run of European rounds the sport calls the ‘Eurosummer’.
A circuit both drivers know well
Baku has treated Alpine’s line-up kindly in the past. Pierre Gasly took a podium at the street track in 2021, while Franco Colapinto scored his first Formula One points there in 2024. Both will be aiming for strong results again as the team looks to extend the points-scoring run it has put together since the summer shutdown.
Gasly was direct about the team’s recent record at the venue.
“While I’ve had a podium in Baku, back in 2021, it’s not been the best track for us as a team in recent years. We’ll aim for a solid, productive Thursday and target having the car in a good set-up window going into Qualifying. Hopefully we can be higher up the grid again and in a position to compete for points.”
Colapinto is looking to carry forward the form that produced a points finish in Madrid. “The track in Baku is another one which is high-speed with street circuit sections, close walls, and we will be aiming to translate our performance level from Spain into this weekend,” he said, adding that the target is another top-10 result as the team chases its rivals in the championship.
Long straights, narrow walls
Ten years on from its debut, Baku has built a reputation as one of the calendar’s most unpredictable layouts. The run from Turn 16 to Turn 1 measures 2.2 km (1.4 miles), a stretch long enough to keep overtaking a realistic proposition rather than a theoretical one.
The contrast comes in the so-called castle section, where the track threads past the historic Walled City. At Turn 8 the circuit narrows to a minimum width of just 7.6 metres (25 feet), leaving effectively no margin for a misjudged line. That combination of high speed and zero run-off is what has made Baku a regular source of safety cars and rearranged results.
One scheduling quirk stands out this year: race day in Baku falls on Saturday rather than the usual Sunday.
A heavy weekend for the Alpine Academy
FIA Formula 2 supports the Grand Prix with an extra Feature Race added to the programme, which means a compressed timetable for Alpine’s junior drivers. Gabriele Mini, Kush Maini and Alex Dunne all contest an early-morning Sprint Race on Friday, then regroup for the weekend’s first Feature Race that afternoon. The second Feature Race keeps its traditional slot on Grand Prix day.
What it means
For Alpine, the value of Baku is less about outright pace than about staying in the mix when the circuit does what it usually does. A team running consistently inside the top 10 has more to gain from a chaotic street race than one further up the order, and the triple-header format rewards consistency over one-off peaks.
The team runs the A526 this season, designed and built at its Enstone base in Oxfordshire, with Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto sharing driving duties under Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore and Managing Director Steve Nielsen.
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix runs this weekend at the Baku City Circuit, with the race held on Saturday.
Source: media.alpinecars.com