We were curious as to what the teams thought about the track draw for the first race. Overall the teams seem to have the usual issues with the track, but their testimony also gives hope for competition in todays race!

Track issues are a problem but everyone drives on the same track at the end of the day, we will obviously not push too close to the walls on a track as demanding like this especially at the corners with wonky barriers, the goal remains, double podium ~Latvian Lightning Locomotives (A. E. Gavars)

Baku is a learning process for us, we are confident but it can be a challenging track due to it being a closed circuit. There’s a fine line between fast and risk which makes it a difficult track to push on ,a small mistake could cost you the race. Goal is to score our first points as a team, fine-tuning setup is important to get best time in quali, but in race knowing the track is more important. We are in same conditions as rest of the grid, so no complaints about the track, this is not random lobby, so we are not expecting harsh rules violations if we speak about non-registered cuts. ~LAME Motorsports (Yuri Lobkov)

First race gonna be only about surviving since Baku isn’t my jam really and try to finish without any big mistakes not locking up the brakes at the tight corners. but points finish would be great start for the season. ~HighSpeed Racing

I feel good about Baku. It’s a circuit I know well. Setup and training always means a lot for me. I probably did around 30 outlaps just to tweak the setup, then some raceruns to get more feeling for the car and race. My goal for the race: try to keep my nose clean (not hitting anyone) and finish with some good points to start the season. ~Mike Van der Burgt

I have mixed feelings about Baku, it seems like a fun track, but I often have trouble with low speed corners. I spent a lot of time making a setup. But the training itself helped a lot more, as braking points and turn-in points are very important in Baku. My goal for the race: drive consistently enough to finish in the points. ~Wesley Van der Burgt

I’ve done very few laps compared to others, i plan to do more laps tomorrow and do some setup testing, streets circuits are not my strong suit so my expectations are not high. My main goal for tomorrow is to get top 10 or at least not be last. ~Muffer Shop Academy (Tyler Schlebusch)

I did some practise laps and ill do more tomorrow but im not really good at this track, i dont want to aim too high so my goal is just to finish the race. ~Michal Šulc

Started practicing this morning after having slept 3 hours, I found the invisible wall right away if you know what I mean, not the biggest fan of the track but talk to you in about a hundred laps. ~Sebastian Iordache

I think the invisible walls are a bigger problem than the cuttable corners people seem to focus on, in my opinion. Also the fact that real penalty doesn’t trip for pit exit is worrying as well. At least Baku will be more forgiving than Bathurst. ~Mitch Fusco

I really like Baku; it’s an exciting track with a unique challenge. However, if you miss your braking point, you’ll likely find yourself in the wall, it’s unforgiving in that sense, though less so than Bathurst. My main concern is the invisible walls on the track. They can be race-ending for anyone who gets caught out by them, and I’m almost certain they’ll ruin someone’s race tomorrow. ~Nick Van Der Meijde

the first race is definitly gonna be challenging at baku, its a very tight track with difficult corners, its going to be hard to keep the pace of the cars in front, the two test races really didn’t give any hints on who will be fast and who will be slower in the midfield up to third place, so far everyone was very close to each other, except the podium who was in both test races on another world, i am confident this race that i can make it to the top of the midfield, so something close to fifth place, as you saw during the two test races my big “weight” is that i am most likely to do an incident, wich obviusly isn’t good, but i believe i’ve gotten better in between these races and the training i do will be very useful towards this specific problem, we’ll have to see in the opening race what happens!

It is very safe to say, that todays race will be a mix of emotions, before and after! Join us live at 19:00 CET, when we see the green flag drop at Baku!