Fittipaldi happy with setup decision after finishing Practice quickest in Baku

Enzo Fittipaldi finished the opening session of the Baku weekend on top for Van Amersfoort Racing. The Brazilian set a 1:58.244 to lead the session and looked comfortable right away despite the limited grip available to the drivers.
Speaking after the session, the VAR driver said that he was satisfied with the team’s work ahead of Qualifying, and that they had opted for the right setup despite Baku’s notoriously long run from Turn 16 to Turn 1.
“The session was good. We were just getting into a rhythm, it’s just Practice – the track is green so it’s tricky to drive. We did a good job, we just have to make sure we’re as competitive as we were in Practice later in Qualifying. We’ll try and repeat that and have a good session later on.
“We did well to predict it, did a longer run before the first Red Flag and it was actually the rain we didn’t expect as it wasn’t on the forecast. It was very damp in sector three and I had a big moment there. I actually hit the wall but luckily, I got away with it. Some of the other guys weren’t as lucky.
READ MORE: PRACTICE: Fittipaldi quickest in tricky opening Baku session
“You can tell who runs the lower downforce and who runs the medium downforce, it’s quite distinctive visually. Everyone can see we’re running the MDF, we were confident before the session to run that knowing that the track was going to be quite greasy and LDF would have been a big risk to start with. We stuck with the MDF, and it was good.”
It wasn’t just the differing downforce levels that drivers had to contend with in the first session of the weekend.
With the Baku City Circuit a street track, the racing surface was not offering up premium levels of grip, a difficult factor to contend with for everyone.
Fittipaldi says that despite that factor, he and the VAR team were able to get important data to go into Qualifying with, as everyone looks to pre-empt the rise in grip levels for session later on Friday.
“It was very dirty. When I was behind Maloney on the first laps, you could see lots of dust coming up at the rear of his car. Definitely more dirty than last year and less grip than last year. But I think with the asphalt being a year older now, it was brand new last year – it was a tricky session but I’m glad we were able to get away with good data and I think we’re going to be prepared well for Qualifying.
“It was a tricky session for sure. Especially for the rookies, it’s even harder. They had half a session and the last 15 minutes the track was still damp. It looks like it’ll be dry for Qualifying, but I don’t know. FP was supposed to be dry but it was raining.”
Having finished on the podium in Baku last season, Fittipaldi will be looking to emulate that type of result once again this year and says he will be keeping it simple between now and Qualifying.
“The plan will be to just sit with my engineer, have a chat, get some lunch, then jump back in the car and drive fast.”