F1 TAKEAWAYS: MCLAREN DETHRONES RED BULL AT AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX

McLaren’s magnificent turnaround has reached its apex as the team overtook Red Bull for the top spot of the constructors’ standings following Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri turned in his best performance of his young career to earn his second career GP victory.

Piastri made his lone pit stop one lap ahead of pole-sitter Charles Leclerc, using the undercut tactic to close the gap, then with a DRS boost showed fearlessness as he dove past an unsuspecting Leclerc through the first corner of lap 20.

From there Piastri fended off the Ferrari to the finish line with a nearly flawless effort. Even when Piastri made a powerslide, it was almost synchronized that Leclerc would do the same.

On the weekend McLaren said “papaya rules” would favour Lando Norris in his quest to unseat Max Verstappen for the drivers’ championship, it was Piastri who looked like their No. 1 driver.

Norris’ weekend appeared to come undone during qualifying Saturday. Yellow flags forced him to lift during his flying lap and Norris was unable to set a fast enough time to advance out of Q1. However, Norris fought his way through the midfield from 15th on the starting grid thanks to a long first stint on hard tires then a switch to the faster mediums allowed him to remain in the mix and pass Verstappen to finish fourth.

Papaya rules, but for how long? Norris is still the team’s best hope in the drivers’ championship sitting second in the standings and 59 points back of Verstappen — a comfortable cushion at first glance, but not when you realize there are seven races to go. Piastri has a much larger difference to overcome sitting in fourth place and 91 points behind Verstappen.

McLaren is on top of the constructors’ standings for the first time since the 2014 season opener in Australia when Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button finished on the podium. As it turned out, it was the only podium for either driver that season as McLaren finished the year in fifth. The team hit rock bottom during the following years and even got off to a slow start last season with zero points through the first couple of races. Who would have thought McLaren would now be in a solid position for its first constructors’ title since 1998?

FERRARI’S FUMBLE

Leclerc qualified on pole position at the Baku street circuit for the fourth consecutive year. And for the fourth consecutive year, he didn’t win the race. Leclerc’s conversion rate from pole isn’t that great to begin with, but this is reaching Buffalo Bills territory.

Perhaps it was just payback from two weeks ago at Monza where Ferrari and Leclerc outsmarted McLaren to score a victory.

Leclerc didn’t put up a fight when Piastri passed him and couldn’t mount a late comeback as his tires wore out faster down the home stretch. Even when Ferrari made a false call for Leclerc to pit again, hoping for its longtime rival to follow suit, McLaren saw through the bluff and didn’t bite.

That all turned Leclerc’s fight for the win into a fight to maintain second place with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz charging behind.

Perez made an unsuccessful lunge at the start of the penultimate lap that opened the door for Sainz to sneak by, but what was a provisional double Ferrari podium evaporated just as fast as it appeared. Baku is a tight, twisty and treacherous track and the chaos we were promised finally came as Perez remained on the offence and collided with Sainz. Chalk it up as a “racing incident” as both drivers were called before the stewards but were let off the hook.

Fortunately for Ferrari, there’s no time to dwell with the next race only a week away and Singapore was where Sainz scored a victory from pole position last year. That certainly bodes well for them, right?

RED BULL LOSES ITS WINGS

Red Bull has long remained as king of the hill but its slip in the championship has felt inevitable. McLaren has been steadily chipping away while Red Bull has been unable to figure out what’s been going wrong with its cars.

Verstappen, who started the season winning races in the double-digit figures, now has a “monster” of a car on his hands with his winless drought reaching seven races. His car’s upgraded floor didn’t exactly deliver while Verstappen also complained on his team’s radio about braking issues and “zero bite” as he struggled for grip on the medium tires.

Is anyone else forgetting what the Dutch national anthem sounds like? Even the “Max Verstappen podcast” (aka the post-race cooldown room) has been missing its host.

The team is emphasizing the positives and there were some, such as Perez having the pace to push for a podium, but it also comes across like an Obi-Wan Kenobi “from a certain point of view” Jedi mind trick to lessen the blow.

Singapore was the only track where Red Bull didn’t win last season, so on the surface you wouldn’t expect to see a turnaround. If the positives from Baku can translate to another street circuit for Perez though, it could work out.

It was around this time last year Red Bull was closing in on both championships. Now there are doubts the team will claim either one.

WHAT ABOUT GEORGE?

It was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one for George Russell, who avoided the Sainz-Perez incident to pick up the third and final spot on the podium.

It was reminiscent of his race win at the Austrian GP in late June as he cruised by the Verstappen-Norris collision unscathed. You have to be good to be lucky — and lucky to be good — and Russell being in the right place at the right time has aided him well this year.

As for Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, this week the pendulum spun back to “he made the right decision leaving for Ferrari next year.”

Hamilton was forced to start from the pit lane after his team swapped power unit parts under parc fermé without approval. He didn’t have the smoothest ride either as he complained on the radio to engineer Peter Bonnington: “Are you seeing how I have to drive this thing?” Bonnington replied, cool and calm, “Copy that, Lewis. It’s effective though.”

Like Norris, Hamilton punched through the midfield and finished in the points with the seven-time world champion coming home ninth.

Who knows, maybe next week in Singapore it’ll swing back to, “Hamilton made a mistake leaving for Ferrari.”

ALONSO, ASTON MARTIN BACK ON TRACK

Aston Martin stole the headlines early in the week as the team won the Adrian Newey sweepstakes with the aerodynamics legend set to join next year. Fernando Alonso then capped the fine week with a sixth-place finish for his best result since the Canadian Grand Prix in early June.

The team looked like a true podium contender to start last year but has struggled to keep pace with Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes passing by. Could Newey be what gives them the edge?

Newey has a Hall-of-Fame resume with 13 drivers’ championships and 12 constructors’ championships across Williams, McLaren and Red Bull. When he joined Red Bull in 2006, the team wasn’t the powerhouse its known as now. Red Bull was just in its second season after buying out Jaguar — a team that had its moments but was nowhere near competing for championships. New regulations are also on tap for 2026, meaning the door is wide open for a new challenger to rise.

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

Franco Colapinto of Williams and Ollie Bearman of Haas were driving in their second grand prix, but you wouldn’t have known that based on how they performed.

Colapinto, 21, crossed the line in eighth place to score his first-ever points in F1. His four points are more than his predecessor Logan Sargeant earned during his entire year-and-a-half run with the team.

Bearman had a sensational debut in March at the Saudi Arabian GP filling in for Sainz and subbed this weekend for Magnussen, who received a one-race ban for accumulating too many penalty points.

While the Sainz-Perez collision put Russell on the podium, Bearman also benefitted as he slipped into the top 10 to earn a point. However, it came at the expense of Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg. Hamilton and Bearman slipped past Hulkenberg just past the crash site but before the virtual safety car came out that froze the order. The 19-year-old Bearman sits 16th in the championship — one point ahead of Magnussen.

Although Bearman is set to drive for Haas full-time next season, Colapinto has yet to announce his plans. More performances like Sunday and he’d be hard to ignore for consideration.

Also, you have to feel bad for veteran Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas, who is 22nd in the standings for a 20-car championship.

2024-09-15T23:52:34Z dg43tfdfdgfd