What are the upgrades brought by Red Bull for the Azerbaijan F1 GP?

Despite being the first of six Sprint weekends, many F1 teams have decided to introduce their first major upgrades of the season at the F1 2023 Azerbaijan GP in Baku this weekend.

Teams like McLaren, Mercedes, and AlphaTauri have heavily-upgraded cars while Ferrari, Red Bull, and Aston Martin have brought in track-specific changes. Below are the changes made by some of the teams in Baku ahead of the race on Sunday:

Red Bull - While the sidepod inlet, engine cover, and rear corner are all track-specific, changes to the floor of RB19 are brought in to enhance performance.

Mercedes- With a new rear wing endplate, rear corner, and front suspension, the German team would be hoping to close the gap to the leaders.

Alpine- Rear wing and front wing for Baku's low downforce layout and new rear and front suspensions with new floor body to improve performance.

"That will be difficult, especially waking up in the morning and going straight into Q1" - Ferrari F1 driver

Carlos Sainz mentioned that it would be difficult for drivers to get straight into the zone for qualifying for the Sprint race on Saturday. Speaking to the media, including Autosport, he said:

"That will be difficult, especially waking up in the morning and going straight into Q1. I need to do a good warm-up, maybe a cold shower and make sure I'm really woken up for pushing flat-out in one of these cars on the straight first thing in the morning. I'll make sure I do my morning routine well because it will be intense."

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso too agreed with his compatriot and added:

"I see the point of doing something that different on the weekend, so we have to embrace that, we have to help F1 and hopefully, the fans will give us good feedback on the weekend. But it's more stressful, especially Saturday. We have breakfast, we go in the car, we tighten the belts, and we are in Q1."

"This is completely new because even back in 2004 or 2006 we had to always practice before qualifying. Now we don't have any practice and we're going to Q1. So yeah, it's stressful for sure and more difficult for drivers."

It will be fascinating to see how F1 drivers will adjust to the new format of sprint weekends this season and prepare themselves for the 'Sprint Shootout' on Saturday.