Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Red Bull finds themselves in rather unfamiliar territory as the F1 season heads into its final stretch
There is an adage in sports.
Winning cures everything.
If a team, or an athlete, wins then all manners of sin can be excused. Questions about lineup decisions, strategy calls, execution on the field or the track, and even questions about decisions made away from the playing surface can be brushed aside.
On Sunday in Baku, Oscar Piastri captured his second career Grand Prix victory with a win in the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. That win came due in large part to a stunning overtake by the Australian driver when he caught Charles Leclerc at the start of the 20th lap of the race and managed to hold off the Ferrari driver from there.
Not to be ignored is the performance of Lando Norris, who recovered from a disastrous qualifying Saturday to pick up 11 spots in the Grand Prix, finishing fourth and adding a bonus point for the fastest lap of the race.
Add it all up and McLaren, who entered the week trailing Red Bull by eight points in the F1 Constructors’ Championship, now leads that fight by 20 points.
With that, not only has the Woking-based team taken the lead in the title race, but they have quieted — at least for the moment — all the questions that have been thrown their way in recent weeks. Questions over team orders, and how they would handle the chase of Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship, as well as Norris’ individual pursuit of Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship.
Questions that were, fairly, raised following races such as the Hungarian Grand Prix — when Norris was given the order to allow Piastri to retake the lead late in the race for his first career win — or the “Papaya Rules,” in Monza, that allowed the duo to race hard off the line at the Italian Grand Prix. That opening lap saw another daring overtake by Piastri, this time against his teammate, and resulted in a one-two start from McLaren turning into a one-three standing after the opening lap.
Now the questions have shifted again. Is this truly McLaren’s title to lose? Will they actually run away with the championship? Can Red Bull get back into the fight? Will Ferrari — who trails McLaren by 51 points — not just make this a three-way fight but emerge victorious?
Those questions will be answered over the final seven race weekends. But right now? McLaren is the team to beat.
Winning cures everything.
Here are more winners and losers from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Losers: Red Bull
The last time Red Bull was not leading the F1 Constructors’ Championship?
Oscar Piastri was a reserve driver for Alpine and Renault, Logan Sargeant was driving in F2, Mattia Binotto was the Team Principal at Ferrari, and Daniel Ricciardo was Lando Norris’ teammate at McLaren.
Yes, it has been a while, and a lot has changed since the 2022 season.
Following the inaugural Miami Grand Prix — won by Max Verstappen while Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. joined him on the podium — Ferrari left South Beach clinging to a six-point lead in the Constructors’ Championship.
Red Bull has led every single race weekend since then, until now.
Everything that could have gone against them on Sunday in Baku, did. Verstappen lacked the pace to challenge at the front of the field, and while Sergio Pérez was in the fight at the front, a late-lap incident with Carlos Sainz Jr. knocked both drivers into the wall, and out of the race.
“Today ended up being a worse-case scenario, but the most important thing is that Checo is okay,” said Verstappen after the race. “In the race, we were stuck behind Lando and Alex [Albon] and had some issues with the balance and the car was jumping around a lot and losing contact with the tarmac. We ultimately still had some issues with changes that we made before qualifying and we just paid the price today.
“Most of the time we make a change going into qualifying and it pays off, but sometimes it doesn’t and it is just a risk you have to make. There is a fix, but we found out too late to make any changes,” added Verstappen. “The initial changes we made were positive; we were going well and we just made some changes in qualifying that tipped us over the edge. For the Championship, we are going to work together as a Team and the fight is not over. You win or lose as a Team and we won’t give up. It is as simple as that.”
Red Bull now trails McLaren by 20 points in the Constructors’ Championship, a deficit they can certainly make up over the rest of the season. However, it might not be until Austin in October that they can challenge at the front, according to Dr. Helmut Marko. “We believe that from Austin we will have a package that should make us more competitive, probably even very competitive,” said Marko after the race.
We will see if that indeed comes true at the United States Grand Prix next month.
Winners: Williams
Williams checked off a pair of “firsts” this weekend in Baku.
On Saturday the team saw both their drivers, Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto, advance to Q3 for the first time this season.
On Sunday, the team enjoyed their first double-points result of the year, as Albon finished seventh and the rookie Colapinto finished eighth.
It was a result that “delighted” the rookie driver.
“To score my first points in Formula 1 is a fantastic feeling. I’m so proud of this team for what we’ve already been able to achieve together. I’m delighted to have points on the board to show for all the hard work and effort we’ve been putting in with it only being my second race. We had good pace today being very close to the Aston,” said Colapinto in the team’s post-race report. “To finish seventh and eighth alongside Alex means we’re now P8 in the Constructors’ Championship which is a good step forward and a motivator for the team. We still need to keep learning and improving together as it’s a long season with many races left. I’m looking forward to racing in Singapore for the first time next weekend.”
The result also saw Williams vault ahead of Alpine and into eighth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Williams still trails Haas by 13 points in the Constructors’ Championship, so a repeat seventh-place finish might not be in the cards. That might be too much to ask for over the rest of the 2024 season.
But you never know.
Loser: Lance Stroll
It has just been that kind of season for Aston Martin and Lance Stroll.
Stroll’s last finish in the points came at the Hungarian Grand Prix back in July, when he took home a single point with a tenth-place finish at the Hungaroring.
Since then, Stroll has been shut out, and his bad luck continued on Sunday. An opening-lap incident with Yuki Tsunoda caused a puncture, forcing an early pit stop and an uphill climb. His day then came to an early end when, with nine laps remaining, Aston Martin retired the car as Stroll’s AMR24 was suffering an issue with the brake pedal.
While things were a bit better on the other side of the garage, as Fernando Alonso came home sixth, it was a tough afternoon for Stroll.
“My race was pretty much over on the first lap when [Yuki] Tsunoda and I made contact. I dived down the inside – I’m not sure if he saw me or not – but he closed the door and I had to pit with a puncture. We’re all racing hard on the opening lap and these things happen, but it left us on the back foot for the rest of the race,” said Stroll in the team’s post-race report.
“With nine laps to go I started feeling an issue with the brake pedal and it was getting worse with each lap,” added Stroll. “This isn’t a circuit to take any risks at, and we were well out of the points positions, so it made sense to retire the car. It’s been a frustrating weekend, but I’m looking forward to Singapore.”
On the bright side, Adrian Newey is coming.
Winner: Oliver Bearman
When you make Formula 1 history, you are indeed deserving of a spot in the winner’s column.
So, welcome back to the winner’s column here, Oliver Bearman.
Bearman first appeared in a piece like this after his stunning Ferrari debut earlier this year at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, when he finished seventh while driving in relief of an ailing Carlos Sainz Jr.
This weekend, Bearman made another debut, stepping in for the penalized Kevin Magnussen at Haas. The result? Another finish in the points, as Bearman came across the line tenth, and ahead of his teammate this weekend, Nico Hülkenberg.
That made Bearman the first driver in F1 history to score points for two different teams in his first two races:
That history-making drive is yet another remarkable moment from the young driver this season, who now sits 16th in the F1 Drivers’ Championship with seven points on the season.
Two points ahead of Esteban Ocon, who is his teammate next year at Haas.
Losers: Visa Cash App RB F1 Team
While there was joy to be found at Haas, there was no joy to be found in the garage of the team they are chasing in the Constructors’ Championship.
Bearman’s point, coupled with another day from Visa Cash App RB F1 Team, saw Haas pull closer to them in the standings. As the grid heads to Singapore, Haas now trails VCARB by just five points, having picked up a point in that fight in each of the last two race weekends.
With both Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo starting outside the top ten, getting into the points was going to be a challenge for VCARB on Sunday. But perhaps their best hope for a result ended early, when contact between Tsunoda and Lance Stroll on the opening lap opened a big tear in Tsunoda’s sidepod, and VCARB retired his car shortly thereafter.
As for Ricciardo while he managed a P13 finish after the race he felt that tire wear issues prevented him from any hope of points on Sunday.
“It was a tough race. The start felt okay; the medium runners in front of me looked like they were struggling, and we were able to catch them,” said Ricciardo in the team’s post-race report. “I was on the hard tire and tried to use it where I could by going long and finding the pace. After a few laps, we picked up a lot of graining, which got worse and worse over 10 laps, causing us to be a few seconds off the pace. The Team could see some other cars were clearing the graining, however it definitely took us a lot longer. When we did, we were able to come back and have a bit of pace again, but we had lost a lot of ground. I’ve never experienced graining like that, the swing of lap time was up to four seconds. We need to understand why we had more graining for longer. Looking ahead, I love the Marina Bay Street Circuit, so hopefully we can have a stronger weekend there.”
VCARB will need some stronger weekends over the rest of the season if they are going to fend off Haas in their fight for sixth.
Winner: You, dear reader
We have said this before in these recap pieces, but it bears repeating.
The 2024 F1 season is shaping up to be something memorable.
Already this season we have seen eight different Grand Prix winners, a late-season lead change atop the Constructors’ Championship standings, and a three-way fight is shaping up in that battle between Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari.
But perhaps most importantly, we have seen some tremendous racing. Yes, there have been some boring affairs — depending on your fandom, of course — but take Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. From the moment Oscar Piastri caught Charles Leclerc until the moment Leclerc’s hard tires finally gave out, those two gave fans some of the most thrilling racing we have seen this year. Hard, but fair, racing, right down to a moment where both Piastri and Leclerc drifted on the final corner, the two drivers matching each other in an instant as they had been throughout numerous laps:
Piastri noted that moment in the FIA Press Conference when asked about having to defend against Leclerc for so many laps.
“I think for me to be honest the key was actually hanging on in Sector 2. I felt like as long as I could keep the lead into Turn 1 then I felt like I could keep Charles. Turn 2, I think, is a very, very slippery corner for some reason this weekend. And if you could get good enough drive out of there,” began Piastri. “You know, the straight is not quite long enough to have DRS really make an impact to catch back up. For me, just taking a lot of risk through the castle section is what I was trying to do because I needed to try and make the gap from Turn 7 through the rest of the lap. And yeah, I had a couple of close calls through the castle and Turn 15 as well. I think the guys probably need to put another rear corner on my car after the race.
“But yeah, that was where I was really trying to be fast and obviously get a good exit out of the last corner,” added Piastri. “On that note, I think we both need to get a photo of us drifting through the last corner. I was speaking to Mark [Webber], and he said it’s like 1950s F1. So yeah, that was a cool moment to watch back. It didn’t feel very fun at the time for both of us, I’m sure. But yeah, just trying to maximize the pace through the end of Sector 2 really was where I was trying to make it work.”
We do not yet know how this season will end, and given what we have seen to date, many more twists and turns likely await.
But if the final seven race weekends this season are anything like the first 17, we are in for something special these final few months.
This is why we watch, for seasons like this.
