F1 champion blames the WALL after shock Kimi Antonelli crash at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Norris during FP2 in Baku — Photo: © IMAGO

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

F1 champion blames the WALL after shock Kimi Antonelli crash at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Baku's famous haunted walls?

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Saturday 26 September 2026 11:14

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Kimi Antonelli severely damaged his chances of winning Saturday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix when he crashed in qualifying on Friday afternoon.

How did the runaway championship leader clout the inside wall at Turn 1 on a qualifying run after putting together a clean run up to that point? Former 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has a theory: pointy walls.

'Pointy' might be overstating the case somewhat – it's not like the kind of 90-degree corner of a table that you put a little rubber cap on so your toddler doesn't headbutt it and leak their brains onto the carpet – but it is indeed the word he used, and the barrier isn't exactly a perfect curve.

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Much like at many racetracks, the barriers around many parts of Baku are made up of, essentially, interlocking blocks. A fun thing about interlocking blocks is that it's very hard to make them perfectly curved, without a little edge poking out here and there. As such? Pointy walls.

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Villeneuve: F1 walls shouldn't be pointy

Villeneuve is appearing as an expert pundit on Sky Sports this weekend, and was asked after the session whether, in relation to Antonelli's crash, Baku is a track which forces drivers to take risks.

"Not in turn one," he said. "In the old town, yes. Turn one, it's quite wide open. In Q1, and when you're in a car, that for sure you're going to be in Q3 anyway, there's no point to go get that ultimate risk.

"So I think I think he just got caught out by surprise by the amount of grip. I didn't realise it was so tight, and also the walls aren't round; they're pointy, which is not how it should be in F1. But that's what we have. It would be easy for them to build round walls, like when you have guardrails, but they don't bother."

Segmented barriers at street races became something of a talking point earlier this year – but in NASCAR, not F1, when the stock car series created a brand new street course on a military base in San Diego.

On more than one occasion over the course of the weekend, a car tagged the barrier – often on the side of the exit of the final corner – and actually pushed the barriers out of shape. Often, cars continued around the track with those misshapen barriers still out there waiting for them.

JV would be having kittens.