Now, here is a team putting their engineering capacity to a serious test. Audi have arrived at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a massive batch of 14 new components, and according to Audi Team Principal Mattia Binotto, the entire setup is delivering as expected.
The Hinwil outfit filled out 14 category boxes on the FIA’s pre-weekend submission list. That list features substantially changed front and rear wings, a revised floor, and a new engine cover arrangement. To properly test the data correlation, only Gabriel Bortoleto ran the updates in FP1, giving the team a direct A/B comparison against Nico Hulkenberg’s older-spec car.
“If you look at the first, let me say, impression of the data, the package is delivering as expected,” said Binotto. He stressed that while lap time and the fight in the championship matter, the broader goal is proving out the team's internal methodologies, mindset, aero concepts, lead times, engineering, and manufacturing.
Binotto pointed out that pushing the system and ensuring the wind tunnel and simulator data correlate correctly takes priority over raw lap time gains. Audi currently sit eighth in the teams' standings, just four points behind Haas, having put both Hulkenberg and Bortoleto into the points at five of the last six Grands Prix.
On the track itself, the weekend had its usual street circuit hurdles. Bortoleto piloted the updated car to P10 in FP1, finishing just ahead of Hulkenberg, before the duo slid back to P14 and P15 in the second practice session.
“I think the car didn't feel amazing in FP2,” admitted Bortoleto. “If I'm very honest, we're lacking a little bit of grip, still to understand why. I don't have answers for that. I guess that's Baku, low grip, super dusty. The track has not been cleaned, I think, for a few years now, and yeah, just we need to drive with this and then try our best.”
