The Azerbaijan GP, with the race this Saturday (26 September), is the first Baku race under the new 2026 power unit regulations. The crux is that the battery cannot last the full length of the flat-out run of just over 2km from the final corner to Turn 1. Motorsport.com expects the dominant theme of driver feedback this weekend to be not the car's agility but "energy management".
A track where the battery runs dry long before the straight ends
The Baku street circuit is 6.003km long, with the race run over 51 laps and 306.049km. A flat-out section of more than 1km runs along the Caspian shoreline, and the rest of the lap is a sequence of 90-degree corners. Sky Sports puts the main straight at 1.4 miles (about 2.2km).
According to Motorsport.com, this long straight drains the battery well before the end, triggering a "ramp-down" phase in which the software gradually reduces electrical output. The long Straight Mode (SM) zone on the straight eases this somewhat, but attacking or defending between Turns 2 and 3 requires energy to have been harvested beforehand, which changes the way drivers approach the big braking zone into Turn 1.
Engineers call Baku a "deterministic" track, because the places where electrical boost can gain lap time are plain to see. As a result, even between team-mates, small differences in driving style widen into differences in top speed. Speed lost to a slide through the final corner has to be regained by accelerating down the straight, and the cost comes out of the electrical "budget".
No DRS: Active Aero and Overtake Mode
According to F1 LivePulse, DRS has been replaced this year by the Straight Mode of Active Aero, which reduces the front and rear wing angles on every car in designated zones. It operates on the start-finish section and in the latter part of the lap, and unlike DRS, which only the attacking car could use, it applies equally to all cars.
The overtaking weapon is Overtake Mode. A car within one second of the car ahead at the detection point can use extra electrical power, which the FIA puts at 0.5MJ. With the exclusive advantage of opening the rear wing gone, a chasing driver has to win the battle by how effectively he uses that extra electrical output. For the teams, the task is to spread deployment across the long flat-out sections so as "not to empty the battery too early". The average pit loss is around 19.5 seconds.
Mercedes' last race with the old package, Piastri wrestling with his style
Motorsport.com reports that Baku is Mercedes' last race with its current package, with a major upgrade arriving in Malaysia (2–4 October). Championship leader Kimi Antonelli is 81 points clear of team-mate George Russell and has won the last two races in a row.
Oscar Piastri has not won since the 2025 Dutch GP. His momentum was broken in Baku last year by a crash in Q3 and a jump start, and the analysis is that this year's low-downforce car and its approach to energy deployment do not suit his style. Team principal Andrea Stella said he is "losing time by thinking too much about the inputs". On a track where deciding when to empty the battery and when to refill it is lap time itself, Baku is where that struggle will show most.