[Purist]

LeMansFan, it could have been 10m, and the Mercedes still would have hit the wall, hard. Besides, with the pits and paddock right there, the physical space to add room, along a straight, I might add, simply doesn't exist.

They do have run-off driver's left on the final right-hander there at Zolder, and I kind of wish they would go back to the original, quick, pair of corners at the end of the lap. I don't think it would hurt the racing. There would be fewer, if any, punts happening at that point anymore. Also, they now have all that added run-off at Turn 1, so a faster approach wouldn't be such a great concern.

Divxx, that's a bit strong, to say it's nearly impossible to pass at Baku. It can be tricky, but there are multiple places where it can be done. The unusual profile, and long duration, of the two hairpins, allows for some very interesting lines, and potential for moves into, through, or coming off of them. The imperfect grip condition of the road can also make it easier to jump a competitor coming off of about any of the slower corners.

The damp track, and red flag for an Audi in the second chicane, didn't help things in Race 1 last year. The long caution for the loose curbing at the 11/12 chicane, pit window delay, and Tandy watering the track from his Porsche, didn't exactly help us get the best read on the track in ideal conditions in Race 2, either. Not to mention, they washed the track early in the day, and presumably, that took off a fair amount of what rubber had been built up.

I do think a few changes would certainly help improve the racing at Baku, but the basic course is solid.
1. Just get rid of that incidental chicane after Turn 10 (the long, high-speed right-hander around the back of the course); the drivers were practically ignoring it last year.
2. The big one would be to remove the first chicane, remove the second chicane (the stupidly tight one), and turn the corner after that second chicane into something like the revised Turn 10 at Singapore, so they aren't too fast entering that narrower section of road. With the first chicane being gone, there would also be plenty of run-out for that right-hander onto the narrower street, if someone went straight on.
3. Finally, if they keep the final chicane (before pit-in), fine, but re-profile it, please, so that we don't have multiple cars wiped out at that point, again. Open it up some.

I wonder, with the larger field, if they will still be able to have all that chicanery in the pit entry and pit exit. They might need to sacrifice some of that to provide extra length for the actual pit boxes.