Audi has brought the most extensive and impressive upgrade package to the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, submitting 14 revised components to the FIA, while five teams, including Mercedes and Ferrari, have submitted no aerodynamic updates.
According to the FIA’s car presentation submissions, six of the 11 teams have declared updates for the Baku weekend. Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Alpine and Haas submitted no new parts.
Audi: a near-complete overhaul
Audi’s package touches almost every aerodynamic surface on the car. The team has introduced a full new front wing, endplate and nose fairing, which it says are designed to deliver better flow to the rest of the car while covering the balance levels of the new package.
The front suspension covers have been revised to match, and behind them sits an entirely new floor, including the floor body, leading-edge devices, and diffuser. The team states that all surfaces on the floor are new and designed to deliver a consistent load increase.
Further back, Audi has modified its bodywork, engine cover and halo fairing, with associated cooling options, alongside new rear suspension covers and rear brake duct furniture. It has also brought a new rear wing assembly, including the beam wing and endplates.
Nico Hülkenberg was cautious about what the package would deliver immediately, speaking to the media on Wednesday, saying its value lay as much in testing the team’s development tools as in lap time.
“It’s an upgrade, so obviously we hope it’s going to give us some performance and an edge,” he said. “But it’s also about correlation with the factory, with building our tools, building that understanding, progressing for the future.”
He added that the team would not have a full answer this weekend. “It should enhance the performance. How much really, we’ll only find out once we start competing.”
Hülkenberg rejected the suggestion that the package had been rushed in response to rivals’ development, saying Baku had consistently been the target date. “It was always in our plan to bring it here,” he said. “It’s not in light of any recent events. That’s just how we had it mapped out and planned.”
He pointed to wider progress at the team over the past year, citing recruitment and investment in facilities and tools at its Hinwil base, though he acknowledged the gap to the front remained large.
McLaren: new bodywork and a lower-drag straight-line mode
McLaren has declared eight changes built around a revised sidepod inlet, engine cover and coke line, aimed at improving flow conditioning towards the rear of the car. The team has also brought an alternative sidepod shape as an option for the new bodywork.
The flow changes feed into a revised floor edge and diffuser, with the rear suspension fairings modified to suit. A new louvre layout offers a range of cooling levels, which the team lists as circuit-specific.
The most Baku-relevant item is at the rear wing. McLaren has modified its medium rear wing so the flap deploys to a different position in straight-line mode, producing greater drag reduction. On a circuit with one of the longest flat-out sections on the calendar, that change could prove valuable.
The description matches McLaren’s H-wing, its version of the rotating rear wing concept that has become one of 2026’s defining technical battles. Ferrari was first to show the idea, debuting it at pre-season testing in Bahrain with a flap that flips completely upside down between corner and straight modes. Team boss Frédéric Vasseur joked to Canal Plus that it should be called the Macarena, after its dance-like movement, and the name stuck.
Red Bull was next, presenting its own rotating wing at the Miami GP. The concept has not been trouble-free: the FIA held talks with the two teams over their designs after a rear wing problem sent Max Verstappen into the gravel at Stowe late in the British GP.
McLaren came to the idea later. It brought an initial version to Austria but abandoned the planned practice run after a garage issue, evaluated a revised example in first practice in Hungary, then raced it at Monza. Like its rivals’, the upper flap rotates through 180 degrees as the car switches between cornering and straight-line configurations. Like Red Bull, McLaren uses a central actuator and clockwise flap rotation, but its flaps pivot around an axis similar to Ferrari’s and do not reach past the endplates as Red Bull’s do.
Red Bull: floor-led package
Red Bull’s five updates centre on revised floor and diffuser geometry, described as the product of development iterations, to extract more local load while maintaining flow equilibrium.
The sidepod has been revised with a new junction to the floor, and the cooling louvres reworked to blend with it whilst keeping the previous range of cooling levels. The mirror assembly and a turning vane on the halo fairing have also been revised to condition flow downstream.
Max Verstappen said the team was getting closer to understanding the car’s weaknesses, though some fixes would have to wait until next season. “I feel like finally we are pinpointing areas where we can be better,” he said.
He expects tyre warm-up to be a challenge in Baku. “It’s not easy to find a good rhythm also with the tyre warm-up and making sure that you’re in the right window,” he said, adding that it made it difficult to feel confident attacking every braking zone.
Williams: floor and rear corner
Williams has brought an updated floor bodywork assembly, including new leading edge devices, floor body and floor corner geometry, targeting the forward and outboard regions of the floor. A revised tail complements the floor.
The team has also reprofiled its front brake duct flow conditioning devices to improve interaction with the front wing, realigned its rear suspension cladding, and added new leading edge features to the rear brake duct furniture, which it says the earlier changes have unlocked.
Carlos Sainz played down expectations for the package, saying Williams had been 1.5 seconds off the leading midfield car in Madrid. “I know we’re not bringing 1.5 seconds to Baku,” he said. “Even with all the upgrades we’re still going to struggle to get out of Q1.”
He said the update’s value lay through confirming the team’s development direction. “If the step is in the right direction and it delivers what we have in the wind tunnel and in our simulations, then we have a path to follow and a direction to follow,” he said.
Sainz, who finished on the podium in Baku last year, said the circuit’s characteristics could bring Williams closer to the pack, as at Miami, Montreal and Monza, but expected the team to suffer again at the following rounds.
Racing Bulls and Cadillac: front-end focus
Racing Bulls’ three changes are concentrated at the front: a new front wing assembly, a new brake duct and front lip, and revised suspension leg profiles, all intended to clean up the flow reaching the floor.
Cadillac has updated its front brake cooling inlet and exit duct profiles to increase available brake cooling capacity, a relevant consideration given Baku’s heavy braking zones. Its front suspension fairings have been revised to match, and the lower edge of its diffuser winglet reprofiled for additional local load.
Aston Martin: grid penalties for both cars
Aston Martin submitted no aerodynamic updates for Baku, but both its drivers face heavy grid penalties after taking new power unit elements before first practice.
Fernando Alonso will drop 25 places after fitting a fifth engine and fifth turbocharger, one beyond the four of each permitted for the season, along with a ninth power unit ancillary component against an allocation of six. Lance Stroll will drop 20 places. His new energy store is the seventh he has used this season against an allocation of three, and his control electronics unit is his sixth of three permitted. He also took a sixth turbocharger and an eighth ancillary component. On a 22-car grid, the penalties leave both drivers starting at or near the back regardless of where they qualify.
The team has continued a weight-reduction programme that it says is now close to the minimum limit.
“Lighter car is faster car,” said an Aston Martin representative. “There has been further savings. We’re getting close to the limit now, which is very good. This is something that is always free performance.”
He played down the effect this weekend, noting the savings had come gradually from race to race. “You will not see a big impact here,” he said.
Stroll said the savings were noticeable, but only marginally. “You feel it a bit, but not enough,” he said. “I think we need to see much lighter cars.”
Honda, meanwhile, is still assessing drivability countermeasures introduced at Monza, which the manufacturer said were difficult to judge there because of the circuit’s layout. The Honda representative said the drivers had given positive feedback on corner drivability in Madrid, but acknowledged Alonso still had comments on points for improvement.
Stroll gave a clearer picture of what the problem means from the cockpit. “When we’re downshifting and coasting into the corner, you want the downshifts to go smoothly, you want the engine braking to be predictable,” he said. “It gives you confidence to attack the corner.”
He said the engine braking had been inconsistent throughout the season. “Sometimes the car’s pushing a bit, sometimes it’s pulling,” he said. “We’re not there with it right now.” He added that Honda had made some improvements but needed to keep working on it.
Baku’s run of 90-degree corners makes it a sterner test. “If the driver doesn’t have confidence, they can’t push hard, especially at this track,” he said.
With both cars facing penalties, Alonso was downbeat about the weekend, naming Baku as one the team had marked as difficult. “I think it’s going to be difficult to score points or difficult to go through Q1,” he said.
Instead, the team will use practice for an extensive test programme. “Some of them are specific for Baku, some of them are more thinking about the next few races and even some of them thinking about next year,” Alonso said.
Haas: fresh parts, not new ones
Haas submitted no updates for Baku, with the team’s focus instead on avoiding a repeat of the car inconsistency that has hampered its season.
Esteban Ocon said the team could not rule out a return of the load problems that compromised its Monza weekend. “There are chances that we go into this race and we have similar problems as we had in Monza,” he said. “The car had an issue with load. It was not delivering what it was supposed to.”
He said Haas was working to prevent it by rotating components. “We’re cycling through parts, we are putting the newer stuff on it.”
Baku poses a particular risk. Ocon said the team struggled with a front load issue and heavy front locking at the circuit last year, problems he said the current car has also shown at times.
The Frenchman said the upgrade Haas introduced in Madrid had worked as intended there, and that it was his first real opportunity to assess it after the car failed to perform properly at Monza. “It was working nicely and we just fine-tuned it here and there,” he said.
Ocon also has a fresh Ferrari power unit this weekend, taking a new engine, turbocharger and exhaust. It is his fourth engine of the season, the last he can use without penalty.
Ferrari: no new parts, tyres the target
Ferrari submitted no updates, and Lewis Hamilton pointed to tyre performance rather than hardware as the team’s biggest opportunity. “The tyres are the things that deliver a huge amount of performance if you get them working,” he said. “That’s an area that we could do better.”
He said Ferrari was happier with how it had developed the car this season but needed a clean weekend to show it. Hamilton also said he did not currently expect to need a power unit penalty, having not completed full race mileage at the previous round, though he acknowledged fresh engines perform better and said that decision would come later in the year.
Fresh power units elsewhere
Four other drivers took new power unit elements within their allocations. Arvid Lindblad, Ocon and Sergio Pérez each fitted a new engine, turbocharger, exhaust and ancillary component. For all three it is their fourth and final engine and turbocharger before penalties apply, with nine rounds of the season remaining, including Baku.
Oscar Piastri and Pierre Gasly took their third and final permitted energy store and control electronics unit, while Nico Hülkenberg fitted only his second of each.
Tyres
Pirelli has nominated its three softest compounds for Baku, the C3, C4 and C5. Under the tyre prescriptions issued to teams, the C3 and C4 are the mandatory race tyres, while the C5 is designated for Q3. Minimum starting pressures for slicks are set at 27.5psi front and rear, with camber limited to -3° at the front and -1.75° at the rear.
Hamilton pointed out how the compounds are lasting longer than ever. “They’re making tyres that just seem to go longer,” he said, suggesting most of the nominated range could complete the race distance. This goes against the FIA for shortening the races in the upcoming 2027 season.
Energy management and closing speeds
The length of Baku’s main straight will stretch every car’s battery. Honda conceded its cars would run out of deployment before the end of the straight, saying “it’s quite challenging for energy management at this track”, with the point at which drivers begin full deployment on qualifying laps a key calculation.
An Aston Martin representative said that could make slipstreaming in qualifying unpredictable, because a lap’s start matters only for speed across the line. “I think you will have quite big differences between someone starting a lap and someone finishing a lap,” he said.
Alonso raised concerns about the speed differential between drivers on preparation laps and those on push laps. Drivers starting a flying lap run slowly until deploying energy just before the line, he said, meaning cars could spend around 20 seconds at 200km/h while others approach at 350km/h. “There is no way to move,” he said, singling out the final corners before the straight as a particular risk, and adding that drivers would need to agree in the drivers’ briefing where to move aside.
Reigning world champion Lando Norris expects limited overtaking opportunities. “Here I think obviously you can’t overtake really until the start-finish and maybe into turn three,” he said.
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