Daniil Kvyat’s scouting report on new Baku City Circuit street course

By Jun 15, 2016, 7:00 PM EDT
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Like his F1 counterparts, Daniil Kvyat won’t get to drive on the brand new Baku City Circuit street course in Azerbaijan until Friday’s first practice session for the Grand Prix of Europe.

But thanks to computer simulators and research from Scudaria Toro Rosso team engineers, Kvyat has a pretty good idea of what to expect on the new surface and how to attack it.

Kvyat, who is currently 10th in the F1 point standings with 22 points, talked at length about his expectations in the latest preview:

“It’s always interesting to go somewhere new. As it’s a street circuit it will require plenty of work on the pedals and with the steering wheel and that’s always exciting.

“You are looking for new tricks in your driving style on a street circuit, because this type of track means the driver has more freedom in terms of how he approaches the corners, experimenting with different lines.

“I’ve driven the track on the simulator, which can give you a rough idea of what to expect and it helps the engineers come up with a baseline set-up, but there is no substitute for driving it for real.

“From the sim, the first thing that stands out when you look at the Baku circuit layout is the long straight that goes from Turn 16 to Turn 1. The start of the lap consists of four 90-degree corners and after that it gets very exciting: we drive through the city’s historic center, which looks like being a very tight section, where we will need to be very precise.

“There’s another fast section through turns 13, 14 and 15 and I think the braking into Turn 15 will be quite tricky. We will see when we get there! After that you arrive at Turn 16, a medium-speed 90-degree turn, and you don’t brake again until you reach the first corner.

“This track reminds me a bit of the Valencia street circuit. It will definitely be an interesting challenge that I’m ready for! I expect there will be a lot of Russian fans making the trip to Baku and I will have plenty of support from the crowd. It’s going to be cool.”

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Ford Mustang GT3 test has Austin Cindric dreaming of Daytona: ‘I want to drive that car’

By Mar 22, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT
Cindric Ford GT3 test
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Austin Cindric wasn’t the “mystery” test driver behind the wheel of the new Ford Mustang GT3 at Sebring International Raceway, but the Team Penske driver desperately wanted to be.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, an amateur sports car driver himself, made the big reveal via a Tuesday tweet that provided the first video evidence of the GT3 Mustang on track.

“I’ve watched the video in question about a million times,” Cindric said Wednesday during a Ford Performance Zoom news conference to promote NASCAR’s first road course weekend of the season at Circuit of the Americas. “Definitely exciting times for sure. I want to drive that car. It suits my experience level and also the relationships that I have.”

Ford will enter the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next season with its GT3 Mustang, entering a two-car factory effort (that will be managed by Multimatic) in GTD Pro and making customer cars available in the GT Daytona category.

That increases the likelihood of seeing more NASCAR drivers crossing over to IMSA. Cindric has been the only full-time Cup driver in the Rolex 24 at Daytona the past two years, but Ford Performance global director Mark Rushbrook has said the GT3 Mustang will provide more opportunities.

Ford has used its GT4 Mustang as a NASCAR driver development tool in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with Harrison Burton and Zane Smith combining to win the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in January.

“We’re excited about the Next Gen car and the new architecture there and the similarities between that car and GT3 and even GT4 cars,” Rushbrook said at the announcement of the Ford GT3 program in January 2022 at Daytona. “We think it’s a great opportunity and to do be able to do that in a 24-hour race and get NASCAR drivers even more time is something we need to consider taking advantage of that opportunity.”

Given his sports car background, Cindric probably still would be in the Rolex 24 regardless. He has eight IMSA starts since the 2017 season opener at Daytona, racing a Lexus RCF GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT category. The 2022 Daytona 500 winner made his second LMP2 start this year with Rick Ware Racing.

But Cindric’s preference naturally would be in a Ford, particularly with sports car racing enjoying convergence and crossovers in both GT and prototype racing.

“It’s an exciting time in GT racing, just as it is now for prototype racing with a lot of new regulations and manufacturers building new GT3 cars,” he said. “And also the opportunity with WEC (the World Endurance Championship) and Le Mans and how that all lines up for that category of car. It’s definitely an exciting time. I want to be as much of a part of that as possible.”

Though those odds seemingly will increase with multiple Ford entries in the Rolex 24 field next year, Cindric said NASCAR drivers still have to put in the networking to land rides as he has in recent years.

“Now how (the GT3 Mustang) relates to specifically NASCAR drivers and how often they want to be in the Rolex, could it be an influence? Absolutely, as far as the tie-in with the manufacturer,” Cindric said. “But the challenge and the drive and the logistics of getting an opportunity for a race like the Rolex 24 will be just as challenging as it always is to find your one-off ride for the race. At least from my experience, that’s what I still anticipate.”

It turned out the “mystery” test driver wasn’t from NASCAR (Farley revealed the driver to be 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Joey Hand after a fan asked whether it was Joey Logano).

But Cindric believes there could be more Cup drivers — and perhaps himself — behind the wheel of Mustang GT3s in the future.

“There’s definitely more of a pathway than I think there would be before as far as Ford drivers are concerned,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to drive that thing. It’s obviously a great looking car. That’s the first box you’ve got to check. And it’s cool (to have) a guy like Jim Farley, no doubt he’s a racer just as much as he is steering the ship for Ford. It’s cool to see he’s just as excited as the rest of us about it.”