F1. Azerbaijan 2025 Review Review

By Gavin Huet, Chelsea, Aiden McLaughlin and Graeme Woolf

Driver of the Weekend

Aiden: Honourable mentions to an ill George Russell and a smooth operator in Carlos Sainz, but top of the pops for me is Liam Lawson. An excellent qualifying performance was topped by a precise drive under pressure as he held the pack behind at bay for a career best fifth position. His comeback from early season woes is pretty much complete – now he just needs to maintain his form for the rest of the year to ensure he has a drive in 2026 (if it’s not already locked in).

Graeme: Finally, Carlos Sainz has delivered for Williams. This drive has been a long time coming for the Spaniard and it was the feel-good story of the weekend to see him on the podium. He’s a hard man not to like and after a fraught start to his Williams career, I’m no doubt one of many hoping that he has turned a corner and that performances like this can become the norm. He’s a multiple Grand Prix winner with Ferrari, so we know he’s got it in him. Hopefully that Williams car has too.

Gavin: I give him so much stick for not doing well that I have to give it to him when he drives to his potential, so this week it is Liam Lawson. Aotearoa’s own qualified third and finished the race in fifth having held off the challenge of Yuki Tsunoda who of course took Liam’s seat at Red Bull, and Lando Norris who was desperate to get past to make up some points over Oscar Piastri in the Drivers Championship. I hope this is the start of his redemption arc.

Chelsea: Shout-out to Liam Lawson who arguably had his best weekend of the year. He qualified a tenth of a second behind Carlos Sainz Jr, and held his own against a strong mid-field in the race, particularly Kimi Antonelli. No shout-outs to Sky Sport NZ, who seem intent on spoiling us via the medium of thumbnails and captions – boo hiss. Special shout-out to Sainz himself, whose second placing presumably earned him the right to drive Charles Leclerc back to Monaco, rather than the other way around.

 

Talking Point

Aiden: “Paying £50m cash to one individual in a lump sum is a very casual way to spend an enormous sum of money.”

So say High Pay Centre, a UK think-tank that analyses issues relating to top incomes, corporate governance and business performance about the payout that Christian Horner has reportedly received from Red Bull. Ironic as the team are currently on an upward trend with back to back wins for Max Verstappen and finally some decent points for Yuki Tsunoda. Surely Christian is now the wealthiest person in his house?

Graeme: The DRS train was a talking point during the race. Early on there was an 8 car DRS train towards the middle and end of the pack. But later on, it got interesting with Liam Lawson leading Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc for the final 15 laps or so, with none of them able to overtake the Kiwi. Norris and Leclerc were in superior cars to Lawson, but neither could make inroads and Lawson drive superbly to hold them off for a career best 5 th place.

Gavin: A qualifying with more red flags than a dating site. It certainly added some jeopardy into the process but I will admit to finding it difficult to watch and maintain any interest – maybe I am turning into a millenial or something equally horrendous? I suppose this is just part and parcel for a street circuit and shows some of the issues faced with these races. People keep talking about a bigger faster straight in Monaco which “could” lead to more overtaking but as this shows, it is not only the straight but the run off areas for when the speed and overtakes do not go to plan that are needed, not to mention the removal of the cars themselves.

Chelsea: Oscar Piastri had an uncharacteristic nightmare this weekend, culminating in him jumping the start, unnerving himself, and colliding with the wall. Race over, it was all on Lando Norris to capitalize, but from a starting position he simply couldn’t and his race ended there. I’m not one for signs and portents, but the entire McLaren team – who were hoping to be celebrating a constructor’s championship right now – will have to instead spend the next couple of weeks working out what on earth happened there.

 

Gossip Time

Aiden: The Liam Lawson to Alpine rumours seem to have been put to bed with Flavio Briatore saying that their second seat for 2026, alongside Pierre Gasly, will be either Franco Colapinto or current reserve driver Paul Aron. Colapinto is surely feeling the pressure with another poor weekend, but to help him, Gasly was only just above him in 18th. Perhaps the drivers aren’t actually the issue here and Briatore is the one needing to be replaced.

Graeme: Again, Lando Norris threw away a potential top 4 finish in a Grand Prix by making silly errors. In qualifying he scraped the wall, costing him valuable time and a higher grid place. And in the early laps after his team mate and championship rival Oscar Piastri stacked his car into the wall, Norris was slow to react to the race restart, leaving a gap to the cars in front and work to do to catch up for a possible overtake. The final error is a team one though. A 4 second pit stop isn’t going to get you a championship and I think this has cost him any chance he had to becoming World Champion.

Gavin:  McLaren look off the pace for the second race in a row, coupled with Oscar Piastri crashing out, and Lando Norris not able to get past Liam Lawson… Who would have predicted this a month ago? The Red Bull resurgence has come at an interesting time for McLaren in the Driver Championship battle and I still think their Papaya Rules may come back to bite them this season. With Red Bull I suspect that with a new team principal in Laurent Mekies there has been a bit of focus on this season and getting the car to be more competitive with even Yuki Tsunoda managing sixth.

Chelsea: We’re reaching the pointy end of the season which means gossip about Red Bull’s 2026 lineup is heating up again. There are realistically five drivers – Verstappen, Tsunoda, Lawson, Hadjar and Lindblad – who could fill the four Red Bull and RB seats. The good money is on Hadjar moving up next to Verstappen, which leaves three bums for two chairs. All eyes will be on Lawson and Tsunoda in the coming races – both had a solid weekend in Baku.

 

Looking Ahead

Aiden: McLaren need a reset in Singapore in a fortnight. For the first time in a while, Red Bull looks to be the fastest car on the grid – but is that track dependent (or just down to Max Verstappen). Surely Oscar Piastri has used up all his mistakes for the year? Lando Norris will be hoping that’s not the case. It’s another exciting weekend ahead.

Graeme: Singapore, the night race. I will be there for P1 and I’m a little bit excited about next Friday late afternoon, before I make a hurried dash to the airport. In the wider F1 world though, can Max Verstappen dominate like he was in the past 2 weekends and put more pressure on Piastri for the title? Will Piastri have a weekend like that again and choke under pressure? It’s getting towards squeaky bum time in the season now and who can handle the pressure will reign.

Gavin: We continue the Lando and Oscar show in Singapore, but it increasingly looks like there will be a guest performance by Max, and you know, sometimes the guest steals the show and receives the accolades. Surely Oscar will not have another weekend as bad as this, and surely Lando can capitalise on the mistakes of others, and surely Max isn’t actually a contender. But this is F1 and things are never predictable are they?

Chelsea: Verstappen’s two wins on the trot – one of them a grand slam no less – lead to that icky realisation that it is not too late for both Piastri and Norris to soil the proverbial sheets. Verstappen’s strengths are received well in upcoming tracks, with the possible exception of Singapore, while neither Piastri nor Norris have felt the pressure of a graspable championship before. It’s been a fantastic season so far, and there’s plenty to see yet.

Bonus Picture(s)

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