The Baku street circuit in Azerbaijan has been on the F1 real life and video game calendar since 2016. Just being honest, I don’t like the track at all and tend to remove if from my career mode calendar and put one of the extra tracks on for F1 23. But some people love it, and it’s also a very commonly used track in online league seasons.

It’s a street circuit, but very unusually for this type of track, actually requires very low downforce levels, comparable the the wing levels run at Monza. This is because of the massive long pit straight, where you need straight line speed to avoid being driven past by other cars with the powerful slipstream/DRS/ERS combo on F1 23.

Here’s a general baseline dry race setup for Baku for a controller user:

• Wings – 13/14
• Diff – 50/55
• Camber – -2.50/-1.20/0.00/0.10
• Suspension –  20-8-8-1-32-35
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/55 Bias
• Tyre pressures – Fronts 23.0/Rears 20.2

This setup is partially adapted from the SimRacingSetups YouTube channel setup for Baku, but substantially adjusted for pad users as he uses a wheel and the two devices don’t translate very well in terms of input and need different setups (huge thanks to him for his great base setups he provides for all the F1 games).

I personally had to space the wings differently, and also raise them a little but, but still keep them quite low for that massive pit straight.

Setup Considerations For Baku

Here are some extra tips for setting up your car for races at Baku, Azerbaijan.

Wings

My setup is actually a little on the high side for wing levels for Baku if you can believe it. A lot of players are running wing levels in the single figures, around 8 front wings, for this track. That’s how insanely important and powerful straight line speed is on the F1 23 game.

Even though the low wings really hurts you around the twisty bits of the track, you need to be fast on the main straight or you just get eaten alive by cars with lower wings blasting past you with ERS and DRS combined.

These wing levels just about worked for me with good exits onto the main straight and tactical ERS usage, but you can lower them even more if you’re struggling against the AI on the straights.

Intermediate Conditions

With DRS disabled in light rain conditions, straight line speed becomes a bit less important, but you still need to keep your wing levels quite low. Your dry setup with still work OK in intermediate conditions, but try adding a few clicks of front and rear wing for more speed in sector 1 and sector 2.

Full Wet Conditions

Heavy rain is very tricky in Baku for sure, and it’s easy to run into one of the many barriers and close by walls in sector 2 especially. You could do with some more downforce and grip just to make it to the end of a full wet race in Baku, but you still need some decent speed on the main straight.

So it’s a very difficult balancing act. Try adding 6-8 clicks on wing to your dry setup, plus moving the on Throttle Diff down to 50 is a must for best traction.

Raise your ride height a few clicks, and soften your suspension a few clicks as well. For pad users, I’d also recommend spacing the wings even more apart, putting the rear wing 3 clicks above the front wing for more stability and traction.

Here would be the full wet controller setup I’d use at Baku:

• Wings – 19/22
• Diff – 50/55
• Camber – -2.50/-1.00/0.00/0.10
• Suspension –  28-8-8-1-40-43
• Brakes – 95/55
• Tyre pressures – Fronts 22.7/Rears minimum

• F1laps.com Baku page – Another car setup forum with pages for every track, and loads of custom setups posted, both TT and race, all cars, all conditions.
• F1gamesetup.com – An even more specialized resource with custom setups, every car and every track, wet and dry weather.

Extra Racing Tips

Here are some extra tips for racing at Baku

Pit straight

The whole setup for Baku is built around being able to attack and defend on the massive pit straight. In terms of pure lap time and ease of driving, having such low wings around this street circuit is not ideal, but it’s necessary to avoid being eaten up on the DRS straight. Aim to get good exits onto the main straight, and save your ERS for defending here – you’ll need it with the already fast in a straight line AI, plus slipstream/DRS/ERS combo over this runway of a straight.

Tyres

Baku is a rear limited tyre track, meaning it’s the rears that are most vulnerable to wear and overheating. This is because of all the traction zones, make sure you’ve got good traction with your setup, and are careful on with the throttle on corner exits. Also keep rear tyre pressures low to keep temps under control.

Tyre allocation/weekend format

Baku is the first sprint weekend format on the calendar if you include it, meaning there’s only 2 practice sessions, plus qualifying, the sprint race and main race. Also, you’ve literally got only one practice session before you’re into qualifying for the sprint (and it’s the results of the sprint that decide the grid for the main race).

Therefore pick the Harder tyre allocation to leave some softs available for P1 to get your car dialled in for the qualifying which is straight after. Also remember to change any engine parts after P1, since setups are locked in Parc Ferme as soon as you drive out in Qualifying, which is only the second session during sprint weekends.

Turn 2 carnage

There’s ALWAYS carnage, collisions and pile ups in the left hander at turn 2 on the first lap of races here. It’s especially bad in league races but also against the AI.

The cars always concertina up in this tight corner and there’s never enough room. It’s advised to hold back in this corner and just aim to get out of it unscathed rather than trying to dive in and make up places (you’re likely to get front wing damage and that’s your race done from there).