Pit Lane Walk, Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Baku City Circuit

We are coming to a familiar scene with the Eastern GP’s. Lots of police and army personnel outside the venue and lots of very helpful young volunteers to sort out any issues on the inside. (We think maybe uni students to practice their English?)

BAKU:

Strangely everything was closed as we went through to the Fan Zone even though there were thousands of (relatively wealthy) people inside, wanting to spend money! Even the Bakcell sponsors were still building their shop fronts. Not even F1 Merchandise store was open! It was like no one told the vendors that 20,000 people with lots of money and time were going to be there! Only in the main fanzone, in front of the grandstand, were there any shops selling food, drink and F1 Merchandise. A direct contrast to the efficient moving of people through to the venue.

If you have a 3 day race pass it includes a Pit Lane Walk. The Baku Pit Lane walk, quite honestly, put Melbourne to shame. Not only was it free, but 20,000 people managed to walk on the track , the start line and past the pit lanes, while the garages were still open and operating. (At Melbourne it was dark, and the garages were closed and you had to pay a lot of money for the privilege of seeing not very much) Here we witnessed Aston Martin practising their wheel changes (3 times before they got it right!!) and saw some drivers up close. It was fantastic! Well done Baku! We hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed being there!