Race start, Baku City Circuit, 2023

Rate the race: 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix out of 10

  • 10 (1%)
  • 9 (1%)
  • 8 (1%)
  • 7 (3%)
  • 6 (14%)
  • 5 (11%)
  • 4 (20%)
  • 3 (22%)
  • 2 (20%)
  • 1 (8%)

Total Voters: 196

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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64 comments on “Rate the race: 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix”

  1. The worst 2023 race so far & the second worst Baku race.

    1. Zzzzzzzzz … a snooze-fest, indeed.

    2. Gave it a 6, yes, one of the lowest marks I ever gave, for baku and for a full duration race it was really uneventful, and only 6% of 145 current voters gave it 7 or higher, that means 9 people or less!

    3. Wow, 80% of the voters deemed this race insufficient, that’s a really bad stat!

  2. Yes (@come-on-kubica)
    30th April 2023, 13:40

    Woeful race on another woeful Street circuit. It’s a shame it’s still on the calendar. Always boring unless there’s a red flag or multiple safety cars.

  3. Good job, Checo!

    Lot’s of mistakes all around.

    The FIA race director can’t find the right button, no matter what.

  4. Incredibly dull race. Maybe we should scrap this whole Grand Prix thing and just run only practice sessions. :P

  5. Minus one trillion for those letting photographers on the fast lane of the pit during green flag. How incompetent you need to be to do that? With more than a lap remaining of the race.

    1. Only caught a glimpse of that fiasco. Like as was in Ozzieville

    2. Different topic.

  6. Not a particularly memorable race. Alonso’s overtake on Sainz was an early peak! Great for Sergio. I really hope this is a sign for a genuine championship fight which I wouldn’t have expected preseason. Absolute madness in the pitlane at the end there. As long as cars are on the racetrack, there’s always a chance of one entering the pitlane. All the scarier due to the crazy fast approach to the entry in Baku. Gave it a 5.

    1. Norris’ overtake on hulkenberg was also interesting, a very unusual place to pass, and ofc a few other battles that didn’t turn out to be overtakes, such as alonso closing in on leclerc in the end, hamilton trying to pass sainz for a while and actually passing stroll earlier.

  7. We knew since yesterday afternoon that it wasn’t going to be a classic, and it wasn’t. Glad it’s finished!

  8. I’ll give it a 2 for the “race” and an extra 2 for the joke in the pit lane when Ocon came in.

  9. Shame that the cars seem to struggle to follow super closely again.
    Guess 2022 was a short-lived thing.

    1. Seems that FIA pandering to teams incompetence with porpoising has likely ruined the rule changes that made last years racing decent. Revert the rule change? Let cars run closer to the ground so ground effects do more?

    2. Raising the floor height is the biggest problem otherwise you could still have close fighting. But reversing that rule I don’t think that will be happen. FIA wanted to do something but should only monitoring porpoising and if too heavy force the car to pit to fix it… not raise the floor that really helped RB..

  10. Quite dull, tbh.

  11. Everything that’s wrong with formula one in a single race

  12. I’m more positive and less grumbly than the majority of fans but that…that was not good. Worryingly so.

    That said, props to Checo for a great drive, and glad Charles’ season is back on track. Hope Checo can hang around in the title fight. At least give Max a tiny sweat.

    1. @nerrticus Take heart that the majority of fans feel the same as you, it’s just the vocal minority of grumbly ones that take the time to spew drivel on the internet.

  13. This was WORSE than the sprint.

    Unbelievable.

    In fact i think all GPs should bê sprints from now on. At least saves everybody’s time as nothing is going to happen anyway.

    1. Agree, I gave the sprint 7, it’s probably a matter of expectations as well, but only 6 to the race, you obviously expect more interesting stuff to happen in a 3x longer race with pit stops, when a sprint typically doesn’t have any, but the fact 80% of voters gave this 5 or less makes me think it was probably universally considered slightly worse than the sprint, which is rare.

  14. Good race from Perez. But the worrying sign is that the two Red Bulls were in a different league. I thought there would be more overtakes. But with one stop majority of the field was in tyre conservation mode.

    1. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
      30th April 2023, 17:44

      Have you only just realised that the ORBRs are in a different league?

      1. Indeed, didn’t some of us say immediately, after the first race, that red bull was gonna go on to dominate the season? And we got called doomsayers because 1 race is not enough? In reality 1 race is often enough to determine how the season is gonna go if there’s such a big margin, you can’t overturn something like that.

        If anything, leclerc\ferrari combination looked good this race, ended up relatively close to red bulls.

  15. New candidate for the worst races since 2008 onwards list. 2 stupid organizations bear direct responsibility for this disgraceful snooze-fest:

    1) FIA. Shortening the main DRS zone by 100m is inexplicable. I don’t like DRS but it’s still a necessary evil.
    2) Pirelli. Brought to Baku wooden hard tires style Bridgestone 2010 or Goodyear 1997. All because they were afraid of a little resurfacing. The opposite of smart.

    1. I’m all for the governing bodies improving the quality of racing but couldn’t help be amused that both the reasons you gave are things fans including me ask vehemently for in other races (less DRS and durable tyres).

    2. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
      30th April 2023, 17:45

      They brought the softest tyres they have.

    3. Mmm, when a car had a big enough advantage, this drs looked too powerful still, you see leclerc couldn’t defend from red bulls.

      We’d have had more overtakes with a longer drs zone, surely hamilton on sainz, but then there would be no chance to defend as soon as someone got within drs.

  16. The worst Baku GP. It was so boring I dozed off while trying to get my infant to sleep.

  17. 2/10 Worst race this season by a margin. This track has 2 km straight, but overtaking was almost impossible even with the DRS and this mammoth straight. Really sad the contract with Baku was extended – F1 is becoming street track championship.

    1. @osvaldas31 This has nothing to do with the track. This is just the 2nd boring Baku race out of 7. Normally it’s a great race. This race was awful because of the FIA shortening of the DRS, but mostly because Pirelli were spooked by a little resurfacing and brought wooden hard slow but steady tires.

      1. Indeed, baku is usually a great race.

      2. @montreal95 But didn’t pirelli bring their sofest tyres? C3-5 problem is DRS zone to small on both accounts and 90 degree turns isn’t good for following. This was boring i even gave it a 4 …. normal my lowest is a 5 (average on sprint & race)

  18. Torn between a 3 and a 4, but I have gone with 4 as I am such a nice guy.

    1. @nullapax :)
      I went for a 3.

  19. That was dire.

  20. Best moment of the race: Alonso overtaking Sainz (for Alonso).
    Worst moment of the race: Alonso overtaking Sainz (for Sainz).

    This wasn’t quite as bad as Trulli in France back in 2004, that famously enraged Briatore, but it was close.

    Judging by the highlights, that’s about the only thing that happened. Apart from the apparently now obligatory random safety car.

    1. Agree. Hamilton’s pass on Russell was also pretty good.

      1. Ah, yes, forgot about that, reminded me of hamilton vs alonso battle in usa 2007.

    2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      30th April 2023, 16:04

      Well, Alonso’s pass lasted 1 second :-) The only thriller were Hamilton’s chases on Russell, Stroll, and Sainz where he threw the kitchen sink and probably screwed up his engine for the upcoming races trying to push the car so now we have to endure another bad race.

  21. I was afraid that the sprint race spoiled the race for me already and it turned out I was right, unfortunately. The start was quite identical to yesterday so no surprises there. The rest of the race was mostly a battle of attrition against falling asleep during the race.

    Congratulations to Checo and Red Bull nevertheless!

  22. The whole weekend was such a bore fest. I think the tyre selection might have been conservative.

  23. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    30th April 2023, 16:00

    It’s not good – Alonso was amazing but I wanted him to catch Leclerc and he disappeared for most of the race.

    The Mercs are the 4th car and I suspect they may have trouble overtaking cars below them in the pecking order. Lewis was the only reason to watch the race after the Safety Car but ultimately his car was not capable of overtaking the superior Ferrari.

    No Ferrari intrateam competition. No Red Bull intrateam competition as Verstappen can’t catch up with Checo.

    1. Don’t expect the Ferrari revival to continue, this race played to their cars strengths.

    2. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
      30th April 2023, 17:50

      Mercedes man in the pits admits they kind of knew what the setup needed to be then didn’t set the cars up as best they could. That has to be evidence Mercedes do need more time in the free practices to get it right at the moment.

  24. 2/10. I think most races are quite bad after a sprintrace, but this one was even worse. It’s a nice track to watch qualifying, but the races here need crashes to make it interesting.

  25. Had a few nice overtakes but it’s one I’ll forget very quickly.

  26. Dohh!!!!! the vote is inverted? left is 10 and right is 1?????? all this years it was the opposite, i wanted to vote for a 3 since it was one of the worst races in my f1 viewing history, and i ended up giving a 8…

    1. Ahah, found one of the 9 people who gave this race 7 or higher! And it was even a mistake, not a good look for this race! However, the vote is inverted ever since the year started, from what I recall, I also was surprised.

  27. Lowest rated start of a F1 season ever?
    It’s been a really dull bunch of races so far, only real hope is a heated championship battle between Verstappen & Perez, wich is still unlikely.

    1. Who knows, perez is doing relatively well, maybe he’s a top driver who’s been underrated cause of driving in the midfield.

    2. I think hulkenberg could also do well if he was given a top car, despite not ever getting a podium.

  28. Love how the chorus goes from ” DRS sucks” to “waaaaa there’s no passing when they shorten the zone”. This place is the best.
    I’d give it a 10 just bc Checo won. I spent the whole race watching their margin and PER spent over half the race keeping VER exactly 1.3 seconds behind him. Fantastic driving.
    I’m undecided but intrigued about the hards lasting the whole race. I’m starting to see Max and the other tire manufactures point that racing should be racing and deg for show is immoral.

  29. Race sucked. Sprint sucked. The only thing discussed in the sprint was RUS sliding into VER. Lap 1 of the race had at least 2 bumps by cars and there was barely a mention of it.

    Is it just me, or does the Red Bull B team, seem to cause more flags during races than another other team? Does anyone have the stats over the last 5 years?

  30. Don’t know why I gave it 4, certainly too much. DRS will always knock a point or two off, it’s a far worse offence than sprint races, the thing that really makes a joke of the whole spectacle.

    1. Think there’s people arguing that we should’ve had a longer drs this race, ofc it was uneventful, but it seemed already easy enough for a significantly stronger car like red bull to overtake the 2nd strongest, let alone with longer drs.

      1. @esploratore1 I suspect there’s a bit of Stockholm syndrome with DRS. We’ve come to look to it to solve a “problem” whilst suppressing our knowledge of how farcical the whole thing is. There would be ways to run DRS that are sporting, but they’ve never been tried, so here we are: true F1 fans forgetting themselves and wishing for more of the clown-show!

  31. I don’t think it was as bad as most people are portraying it. I did only see a highlights programme though so maybe they were judiciously edited. There was no contest at the front of course and this doesn’t bode well for the rest of the season.

    Good drives by Perez and Alonso.

  32. Easily one of the worst tracks on the calendar. Wish they would make a separate championship for these Mickey Mouse tracks that solely exist since the commercial rights owner wants to be closer to more people so they can male more money. Has little to nothing to do with sports.

  33. I give it a generous 3. Only a Checo fan would rate it higher.

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