Motorsport: Azerbaijan right up Hartley's street

Kiwi Formula One driver Brendon Hartley is looking forward to going to another new circuit. Photo / Getty Images

Kiwi racer Brendon Hartley makes his first visit to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku this weekend but he could be in for a challenging race.

Hartley's Toro Rosso car has endured an up and down season so far — impressing on the tighter Bahrain track but struggling on the more high speed circuits in Australia and China.

The Baku street circuit features a couple of long straights, which is not likely to suit the Toro Rosso Honda.

Although their top speeds compare favourably to rival teams the measure of success is more about how the car achieves that speed and what energy it uses to get there.

Hartley has spent time getting to know the track on the simulator and feels it will be a track he enjoys driving even if the car isn't so well suited to it.

"I'm looking forward to going to another new circuit," Hartley said yesterday. "I don't know how many different circuits I've driven in my career but I'm always excited to drive a new one.

"I think it's very unique, being a street track, some really interesting corners with no room for error, which is always something I enjoy — probably most of the other drivers do, too, so we're all in the same boat.

"From driving it on the simulator, the bit by the castle almost reminds me of Macau, which is one of my favourite tracks.

"I think I'm going to enjoy it and I'm really looking forward to the fourth race of the season."

Obviously experience counts for a lot when you're learning a new track.

Brendon Hartley

Hartley has prepared as well as he can but there is no substitute for actual experience at a particular venue. That makes practice particularly relevant this weekend as he learns the minor details of the track.

"Apart from all the sim work, plus looking at videos of past races, I'll be doing as much study as I can, so that I'd like to think that within 10 laps, you're pretty much up to speed," Hartley said.

"A lot of the work we do on the sim is actually for the engineers to develop the set-up and a small part of it is for the driver, but when you're going to a new track then a bigger percentage of the work done is for the driver as well so it serves two purposes. Obviously there's always those last few tenths still to come from a track that's new to you, where knowing every bump in the road, changing conditions, wind direction, all have to be experienced at the actual circuit. But when you've driven hundreds of circuits in your life, you try and piece them together and look at one corner and compare that to somewhere else that you've been.

"Obviously experience counts for a lot when you're learning a new track. You certainly expect that the sim is modelled as close to the real thing as possible but it's always hard to know — is that curb exactly the same? Does it get the same amount of grip? Are there other factors? Are there marbles? Therefore, it's also useful to look at video of past races to see what lines the drivers take and you can also learn from that."

The Formula 1 calendar is in the middle of a three-round swing of fast circuits — China a fortnight ago, Baku this weekend and the next stop in Valencia, Spain. It won't be until the following event on the narrow streets of Monaco where Toro Rosso is really expected to be fighting more towards the front.

Honda is expected to release a significant engine upgrade in time for the Canadian Grand Prix in early June, which could have a major impact on the remainder of the season.