Daniel Ricciardo believes survival is the key to success at arguably Formula 1’s most crazy race in Azerbaijan.
The past two years the streets of Baku have produced plenty of drama and plenty of unexpected results, with this the only Grand Prix where a midfield driver has reached the podium every season.
As a result, the Australian might be forgiven for thinking this weekend is his best chance for a top three with Renault in 2019.
“It’s one of those ones where you have to be in it, to win it, you really do,” he told Motorsport.com on Thursday.
“You’ve got to take the most of the opportunities. It’s just having that balance on Sunday where you’ve still got to be fired up and ruthless enough, but if it this is going to take your race away from you in the first 10 laps, maybe save it for later, because more shit’s going to happen.
“It’s a good one. I’m looking forward to it, well aware anything could happen, so hopefully, things will happen.”
Ricciardo has been on both ends of the scale in Baku having emerged victorious from the chaos in 2017 but would be involved in a controversial clash with Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen last year.
“We’ll see. Turn 1 has been interesting… Turn 1 has been very controversial for us last year, but in 2017 it the move of the year, and that set up the win for me,” he added.
“I got a pretty good relationship with Turn 1, so let’s see what happens! Talking about it, I’m excited.”
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Asked why he thought Baku created so much incident, Ricciardo believes the track layout does have an impact on the drivers.
“You’ve got a street circuit, so naturally the walls create the risk,” he noted.
“[It’s] low grip, because it’s a street circuit, so more chance to make mistakes. Low downforce, so more chance to make mistakes and crazy high speeds because of the long straight.
“So you get massive slipstreams and tows, and that brings the racing close together. A lot of the corners around the track are low speed, so you don’t get a big loss through the aero stuff, so you can kind of hang close through the whole lap, and then get massive tows on the straight.
“And then just the high speed at the end of the straight. When you’re going 340-350km/h that just creates a level of adrenaline that probably gets us jacked up more than we normally are.”