Street Cred
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team Hits Streets in Search of Points
KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (April 19, 2019) – The fourth round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship means a return to a street circuit with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix April 26-28 at Baku City Circuit. The 70th Formula One season opened on a street circuit with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne and Rich Energy Haas F1 Team scored points via a strong sixth-place finish by driver Kevin Magnussen. But in the two races since, in Bahrain and China, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team has been held scoreless.
After leaving Australia fourth in the constructors’ standings, the American squad has fallen to sixth where it is tied with McLaren, four points behind Renault and Alfa Romeo, which are tied for fourth, and one point ahead of eighth-place Racing Point. Despite the lack of points, Magnussen and teammate Romain Grosjean have shown speed, advancing to the final round of qualifying in every event this season. The issue, however, has been carrying that speed through the race.
Bahrain and China are purpose-built Formula One facilities, both designed by Hermann Tilke, who has penned many of Formula One’s modern-day venues. And while Tilke also designed Baku City Circuit, which made its Formula One debut in 2016, its 6.003-kilometer (3.730-mile), 20-turn layout is on the streets of Azerbaijan’s capital city.
Drivers blast down two enormously long straights in a dumbbell-shaped layout that runs counterclockwise. The two main straights include a 2.2-kilometer (1.367-mile) stretch along the promenade and a 1-kilometer (.621-mile) stretch that takes drivers away from Azadliq Square. The track blends old and new amid these fast straights and slow corners. It winds through a modern, Eastern side where swank hotels and high-end shops reside, to a historic area where the streets are narrow and steep before returning to the mainstraight where a sharp left turn greets drivers at its end.
Both Grosjean and Magnussen have competed in every Formula One race held in Baku, with the highlight being Magnussen’s seventh-place drive in 2017. The duo returns to Baku intent on regaining the form they showed on the streets of Melbourne and securing the points needed to put Rich Energy Haas F1 Team back atop the midfield.
