Perez: Baku leaves 'no room for mistakes'

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Force India driver Sergio Perez summed up the new Baku City Circuit as being potentially the most challenging circuit on the 2016 Formula One calendar for the drivers.

"It is going to be very difficult. Although you have one of the longest straights on the calendar, I think it might be a bit on the difficult side to overtake. In some of the places only one car can go through.

"It is quite unusual. The corners, the risk - I mean, going into the wall. I like that. It is our challenge for the drivers, coming to challenging places. It is something that we all enjoy and I'm sure that most of the drivers are going to love this place."

"There's very little room for mistakes. If you make a mistake, at the very least you're going to lose a couple of seconds - if not crash into the wall."

The new circuit is described as being like Monaco in some parts but then closer to Spa-Francorchamps in others with a very long main straight, making it very difficult for engineers to set up the cars for the mix of high and low downforce sectors.

"It's going to be a compromise on that for certain," agreed Perez. "I don't think it's going to be Monaco [levels of] downforce. There's a lot of corners where you can make or lose a lot of laptime, but at the same time you have that very long straight so it's one of the things we'll be looking out for tomorrow.

"It's like Monaco, but fast Monaco," he added. "More challenging than Singapore."

But overall, Perez gave the circuit his endorsement.

"I am very pleased with the job [circuit designer Hermann] Tilke did on this one," he said. "For making it more of a drivers' circuit. In some of the places we go, you make a mistake and cut across and there is not even grass. Here there is a challenge, no room for mistakes and I like that. I think that is how F1 should be: no room for mistakes.

"It's going to be very difficult to put a lap together around this place. You have so many corners, so many sections that it's going to be a tricky one," he said. "It's up to the driver to judge that, how much to take out of every session, qualifying and the race - every lap here is a challenge. I'm very happy to be here.

"I've never done Macau in my career, but this is one I really hope that tomorrow I can really enjoy driving. I think it is going to be one of those tracks that are going to stick out on the calendar.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.