October 26, 2025 · 3:23 pm

Albon looks for answers as Sainz continues to set the pace at Williams

Albon is on a difficult run just as Sainz is finding his feet at the Grove team

Mexico City has been a case of mixed fortunes for the Williams F1 team thus far, with one driver struggling and the other in a good place – but stymied by a penalty of his own making.

Alex Albon’s recent struggles continued as he encountered brake issues for much of the weekend, and come qualifying he couldn’t better a lowly 17th.

In contrast Carlos Sainz breezed through the first two sessions in P11 and P5, and then took P7 in Q3 – ahead of Oscar Piastri – before his five-place hit from the US GP clash with Kimi Antonelli dropped him down.

For Albon this was just the latest in a run of seven painful weekends that have seen him start 13th or lower.

“We’ve been chasing a lot, never feeling that comfortable with the car,” he said when I asked about his Mexican troubles. “And then the qualifying was even one of the most painful ones.

“So I can’t tell you what it was. Sliding around from Turn 1 to Turn 16, and brakes were an issue. But you should still be getting through to Q2 without the brake issue. So I can’t put my finger on it, but yeah, it was a strange, strange session.

Albon has had a run of tricky qualifying sessions of late that have seen him fail to make it out of Q1 several times.

“It feels like I’ve just dropped into a bit of a bit of a tricky spot with the car, so I need to kind of get on top of it. But it’s not been that easy.

“Generally, the pace is also not there, so we need to figure out what’s going on. But it’s not been comfortable.”

Sainz meanwhile has begun to have the upper hand on a regular basis, and in Mexico he was keen to overlook the costly grid penalty.

“Today I’m going to focus on the positives,” he said. “Because it was one of my best qualifyings of the year, if not my best Q3 lap, probably of the year. I’m honestly very happy, feeling more and more at home with the car every session that I do, knowing where to go with setup, with tyres.

“Just put there a really solid lap to fight it out with the McLaren and the Mercedes for the top seven. And we managed to get it there. So very happy with that.”

He’s not been without a few problems of his own: “In FP3 I was struggling with some issues, but we changed a couple of things in the car, and it seemed to be solved. I think we were also struggling a bit with tyres when the track temp was dropping now, but I could get my way around it.”

Sainz clearly has some good momentum at the moment.

“I think experience, in the end, is just helping me, going through all that pain in the middle of the season with tyres, feel like I’ve learned a lot of lessons that I need to apply with this car.

“And today, we were very reactive. We struggled a bit in Q1 but then we got it, everything going in in Q2 and Q3 and we managed to maximise the pace of the car.”

He added: “Very happy, very proud of the team, because we’re making huge progress through the year, and even if the pace was there at the beginning, now putting things together just shows what we can do.”

Giving up five places on Sunday will be painful, but he remains optimistic.

“Just get a good start, see what the cooling of the car allows me to do,” he said. “I’m going to be quick, like expected, probably fastest midfield car, like I’ve been all the last few races in race pace.

“But here I’ll probably be a bit more limited by the track layout, by the cooling of the car, and see what we can do to recover. I’ll do my best. And if the engine or the brakes are running too hot, I’ll just back off and have to bring it home. But I’ll push.”

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October 22, 2025 · 4:44 pm

How Albon, Ocon and Hadjar taught the US GP field to avoid Pirelli’s hard tyre

Usually the hard tyre is a good race option, but it didn’t work in Austin

The US GP brought an intriguing twist on the tyre front as the C1 hard proved to be ineffective in the race, and was quickly abandoned by the three drivers who started on it.

Austin saw Pirelli introduce a double step between compounds, with the C1, C3 and C4 in play, in an attempt to mix up strategies.

Typically the hard is the starting choice of drivers down the field, especially those who are a little out of position after bad qualifying sessions. The general idea is to use its durability to run as far as possible into the race, and hope that a safety car or even a red flag creates a strategic advantage.

That didn’t happen on Sunday, as the tyre simply didn’t switch on properly. Alex Albon abandoned his hards after just seven laps, with Esteban Ocon following on lap 24, and Isack Hadjar on lap 28.

When you consider that Lance Stroll was also able to run as far as lap 28 with his softs – three steps away on the compound scale – it’s a good indication that the hard wasn’t working.

In effect Albon, Ocon and Hadjar served as a litmus test for the rest of the field. Their form plus the unexpectedly strong opening stint from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on the C4 convinced rivals to go to the softs from the mediums on which they had started.

Prior to the race that decision had not been clear cut, with medium/hard cited by Pirelli as the most likely option for the race.

“We were not even sure that a medium/soft could have been a feasible one-stop,” said McLaren boss Andrea Stella. “So we just discovered through the race what the strategy should have been.

“We saw very early that the hard tyre wasn’t a good tyre, because people were coming off the hard tyre, and before it looked like the medium/soft was a possibility. So in this sense, I think Ferrari had done a good job of anticipating that starting on the soft was a good idea.”

For Albon it was particularly galling as he abandoned the hards so early that he was obliged to switch to a two-stop strategy.

“A hot track, hard tyre, normally that’s a recipe for a good race,” he said when I asked him about it. “The hards worked well last year, and long runs in FP1 looked good as well. So we were kind of licking our lips a little bit when I was told there were not many cars on the hard tyre in front of us. And then at the start of the formation lap, I thought that’s a lot less grip than I expected it to be!”

A first lap clash with Gabreil Bortoleto didn’t help: “We had an incident on lap one anyway, that being said, it didn’t really change much to the race. I don’t think it was my fault or that it was Gabriel’s fault either. Then effectively we just decided to get rid of the tyre, and by doing so, almost started a pit stop back basically in our race.”

This season Esteban Ocon has made often used long opening stints to project himself into the points, and the Haas driver was hoping for more of the same in Austin. Alas this time he was left frustrated.

“I think we just gave the info – myself, Alex and Isaac – for the whole field, really, in not using that hard,” he said. “I think it was the tyre that was not working for this track. I had a good start, gained three or four positions. It was pretty good after Turn 1. But unfortunately, I lost it all after three laps. I had no pace, was sliding a lot. It was extremely difficult out there, and when we boxed into the medium, the pace was decent. It was the same as most people that were fighting ahead, but I couldn’t recover after what we lost. So we didn’t get it right this race.”

Given that Hadjar was starting in P20 after his costly Q1 crash Racing Bulls had to try something, but it didn’t pay off as he followed Ocon home in P16.

“The race I anticipated, to be honest,” said the Frenchman. “The race was obviously not amazing today, it was average. And strategy, we wanted to go long and something to happen. But it wasn’t the case. I didn’t want to start on the hard today. I knew soft/medium were just enough to make the whole race, but obviously starting P20, you want to try things that don’t really make sense. So we tried.”

Hadjar stressed that it wasn’t his choice: “If it was down to me, I would have started on another tyre. But I understand that point of view. We had to try something. We had to understand. So I wasn’t against their decision, so that was fine. At least we learned something.”

In Mexico City weekend Pirelli is once again running a two-step compound gap, this time with the C2, C4 and C5 in play. In theory it should be business as usual with the harder tyre a viable race option – it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

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October 21, 2025 · 4:45 pm

Why Piastri believes that performance will keep him on track for F1 title

His lead may have shrunk but the Australian remains confident that he can come out on top

Max Verstappen has taken a whopping 64 points out of his World Championship lead over recent races, but Oscar Piastri remains confident that the balance of power will turn in his favour over the remaining races.

He may have endured a run of misfortune, but as he notes a 40-point advantage is a useful cushion, and Verstappen still has a lot of work to do.

F1 seasons tend to see an ebb of flow of both form and sheer good or bad fortune, and a campaign of total dominance like that of Verstappen in 2023 is rare – especially given how hard it is to get everything right over what is now 24 events, and with sprints included, 30 races.

A couple of clean weekends could give Piastri back the title winning momentum, and the challenge now is to join the dots rediscover the recipe that worked so well just a few weeks ago.

Austin was tricky for the Australian, and a frustrating qualifying session that saw him lacking a little pace and only P6 left him with a difficult Sunday afternoon.

He gained a spot from George Russell at the start, but thereafter there was nothing he could to improve on fifth .

“I was certainly trying my best to get any more spots if I could, but just didn’t have the pace to do anything,” he said when I asked if his race was about damage limitation. “It was trying a lot of different things, and trying to find some pace. But it was either the same pace or slower when I tried different things. So some things to try and understand.

“The balance was quite different to what I expected at the beginning of the race. And I think naturally, as the rears went away, it kind of came back to me a little bit, but the pace never really came with the balance change.”

Austin was clearly a difficult weekend for Piastri and the timing in terms of the title battle was unfortunate.

However at the sharp end of the grid it’s not easy to get it right every time, and just a few events ago it was Verstappen who was regularly left frustrated at he tried to optimise his car.

“I’ve not felt particularly comfortable the whole weekend,” said Piastri. “So definitely some things to try and understand. But I feel like with the pace I had this weekend, I did the most that I could. Qualifying was clean at least, and the race was clean, and I made up a spot. So with the pace I’ve had, that’s ultimately, all I can really ask for the moment.”

Why Austin in particular was so tricky is what Piastri now has to dig into with his team, and ensure that lessons are learned for upcoming tracks. One possibility is that McLaren’s strength on medium-speed corners was less useful at COTA.

“I don’t have any great ideas at the moment,” he said. “Qualifying was clean from my side, just the pace wasn’t there. And honestly, a pretty similar story in the race. I think this layout is quite interesting, in there’s a lot of very high-speed corners with a lot of ride content. There’s a lot of very low-speed corners. So you need to be good at both ends of the spectrum.

“And actually, there’s not a whole lot in that medium speed range. There’s a few, but there’s more outside of that range. I think also for me, it’s not been a particularly happy hunting ground my whole F1 career. In some ways, I can’t say I’m shocked that this has been a tough weekend.”

Inevitably Piastri now faces questions on how much pressure Verstappen is putting on him, but he’s quick to downplay that suggestion.

“He’s obviously there, and he’s quick,” he said. “But I think for me, the biggest focus is just trying to work out why this weekend was tough, and try and get back on the form we’ve had earlier in the season. So that’s my biggest focus. And if we can find that again, then the results will take care of themselves.”

Regarding the bigger picture of the title battle with both the Dutchman and his own team mate he said: “I’d still rather be where I am than the other two! But obviously this weekend has not been what I wanted, or what I expected. This weekend has been quite different to the previous couple.

“Baku was obviously a bit of a disaster for very different reasons, and Singapore was what it was. So I think this weekend has been kind of the odd one out compared to others. Definitely Max and Red Bull have found a lot of pace since the summer break as well. And we saw flashes of it at the start of the year, but it’s been consistent since Zandvoort.

“He’s obviously had a good run in the last few races. But ultimately, if we can find our way again, find our pace, and certainly for me, find the pace again, then I don’t have any major concerns.

“Still a long way to go in the championship. He’s obviously chased it down pretty quick, but it’s not exactly a small gap with five rounds to go. So I think if we can find our pace again then things take care of themselves.”

He remains confident that it will all come together in his favour,

“I’ve been in fights that were as close, or at this point, even closer than what they are now,” he said. “So I’ve got the evidence for myself that things can still turn out well, and I still fully believe that I can win the championship.

“This weekend has obviously been tough, and the gap has come down a little bit in the last few weekends. But again, performance is what’s going to win you a championship, not just looking at points and seeing if you can increase it or decrease it. The faster you go, the more points you’re going to score.”

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October 20, 2025 · 2:26 pm

Why Russell believes that Pirelli’s current F1 tyres create “bad racing”

The Mercedes driver highlighted a lack of overtaking in the US GP

George Russell has expressed his frustration with Pirelli’s current Formula 1 tyres after a US GP that saw little overtaking.

While Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc had a spectacular fight for second place – helped by the two drivers being on different strategies – there was little action involving those who were on similar tyres.

Pirelli’s hopes of adding interest to the race with a double step between compounds in Austin didn’t pay off, with those who started on the C1 hard abandoning it early, having signalled to the rest of the pitlane that it was not a good race tyre. Everyone thus went from mediums to softs.

On the first lap Russell dropped from P4 on the grid to P6, and he remained there behind Oscar Piastri for the duration, despite having demonstrated in the Saturday sprint that he had the pace with which to challenge Max Verstappen.

“I made a good start,” said Russell when I asked about his loss of two places. “But when Max covered Lando, I thought the normal thing to do would be for him to go to the outside to protect his position. And in turn, he didn’t.

“He just stayed behind Max. He got overtaken, and it blocked me in, and then I got overtaken. So that was quite frustrating. But I had the feeling before the race, wherever you finish Turn One is where you’re going to finish. And unfortunately, this turned out to be the case.”

Russell made it clear why he couldn’t make progress after losing a couple of spots.

“I think I if I came out of Turn 1 in P4, due to Charles’s strategy, maybe I could have finished P3,” he said. “But the thing is now, when there’s no tyre degradation, there’s no tyre delta between the fastest car and the slowest car in the top six, there’s maybe two-tenths or three-tenths.

“And every track we go to, you need at least half a second to overtake, so that’s why you’re not seeing any overtakes. And I don’t even remember the last two-stop race, to be honest.”

However Russell was reluctant to blame Pirelli, acknowledging how difficult it is for the tyre supplier to tick all the boxes.

“I think Pirelli get a hard time no matter what,” he said. “If there’s lots of tyre degradation people say it’s not real, the drivers can’t push, we have to manage, we don’t like that. Then when there’s no tyre degradation, we say it’s a boring race. They don’t seem to be able to win in any case.

“So realistically, you want a tyre that you can push full gas, but it doesn’t go the whole race. If you could choose for the tyre, it’s a tyre, you go flat out, but after 15 laps, it falls off a cliff, and you have to do a two or three-stop race.

“And ideally, the soft tyre there’s 12 laps, the medium tyre does 15 laps, and the hard tyre does 20 laps, and then it falls off the cliff. But that is a lot easier said than done. As I said, Pirelli get a very hard time. They do their best. They have given us a substantially better tyre. This tyre is very good, but it causes bad racing.”

He added: “All of the races recently been one stops, and even from the sprint race yesterday, the Ferrari couldn’t overtake Carlos. Years ago, that would not have been the case. I don’t really know, but I think it’s just lack of tyre deg.”

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October 10, 2025 · 2:26 pm

How Lawson went from hero to zero in Singapore as pressure mounts

After a great weekend in Baku Lawson had a difficult time in Singapore

It’s all too easy to go from hero to zero in Formula 1 when you’re fighting to hold on to your seat, and alas that’s exactly what happened to Liam Lawson in Singapore.

In the paddock it’s taken for granted that his mercurial Racing Bulls team mate Isack Hadjar will graduate to the senior Red Bull Racing team in 2026.

That would leave the Kiwi fighting with Yuki Tsunoda for a VCARB drive, given that Arvid Lindblad is on standby and has a lot of support, despite some in the camp suggesting that he’s not ready to move up to F1 just yet.

However with Alex Dunne now also waiting in the wings pending a super licence it could be that neither Tsunoda nor Lawson is retained by Helmut Marko and co.

At the previous race in Baku Lawson did a great job to qualify third and then hang on to fifth place in the race, having lost out to the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

He coped well the pressure of having a train of cars lined up behind, headed by none other Tsunoda.

Alas in Singapore much of the good work was undone when he crashed heavily in Friday practice, and then did the same on Saturday in FP3. He thus went into qualifying with a repaired car and limited preparation.

He had to settle for 14th, before gaining two places on the grid from the disqualification of the two Williams drivers.

In the race itself he ran a marathon 49-lap stint hoping that a safety car or red flag might throw him a lifeline, but in the end nothing happened, and he fell back three places to finish in 15th.

After the flag he was at a loss to explain how he had ended up going backwards, while Carlos Sainz used a similar strategy to advance from P18 to P10.

“I think the only question mark is I need to have a look why, but I have no idea how we came out behind that big train of cars, and Carlos managed to come out in front of them,” he said when I asked about his race.

“Because we were actually in front of him before the stops. So frustrating obviously, but something we’ll look into.”

To his credit he took full responsibility for making his life difficult with the two crashes.

“It’s something that was my doing,” he said. “Obviously yesterday [FP3] was very costly before qualifying, to miss all the new tyre running, to have a car that was obviously just put back together in time.

“The team did an amazing job to put the car back together. But obviously when you go out for qualifying, it’s not going to be completely perfect. And I’m trying to drive two, three seconds quicker than what I’ve been driving before I shunted.

“So obviously a big, big learning curve for me, something that I take responsibility for. But in the race, the car was strong. We struggled a little bit towards the end of that long stint on tyres, especially compared to the Williams but yes, still positives to take forward.”

The Racing Bulls has been competitive at every type of track in recent months, so Lawson has a chance to make amends in Austin.

A year ago he took over Daniel Ricciardo’s seat there, and impressed with his pace, especially in Q1. He finished the main race in ninth place.

“It’s been good this weekend,” he said of the car’s current form. I’m sure we should have a good package in Austin.

“It’s now full circle back to back to where it started last year. Obviously it’s a track I enjoy. It’s a track we had a good race at last year, so hopefully we have a quick car this year.”

Earlier in the Singapore weekend he reflected on what he has to do in order to hang on to his seat.

“It’s nothing in particular other than just scoring points, having good races,” he said. “I think the main thing is for us scoring points, we’re fighting for P6 in the constructors’, and from a team focus that’s what we’re very focussed on.

“And if we achieve that, naturally, that means that I’ve probably done my job. And from a wider perspective, that’s probably the goal for me. It’s just every time I get in the car, trying to get the most out of it, and score the most amount of points I can.”

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October 8, 2025 · 9:44 am

Why Leclerc feels like a “passenger” as Ferrari form continues to drop away

A poor weekend for the Maranello team in Singapore highlighted how far behind it has fallen

For Charles Leclerc the Singapore GP weekend was one of frustration, and coming on the back of similar disappointment in Baku – another street track where the Ferrari driver arrived with some optimism – it was not easy to take.

Having qualified seventh he had a good start from the favoured odd-numbered side of the grid, passing Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli to take fifth.

However like his team mate he was dealing with brake issues almost from the start, although they weren’t quite so dire.

Nevertheless in the latter stages of the race he was not able to keep a charging Antonelli behind, and thus he dropped back to a finish sixth.

The 46-second margin to the winning Mercedes of George Russell, and not much less to the Red Bull and McLaren that completed the top three, was as perhaps even more painful that the actual position.

“From lap eight, basically it was all about managing those brakes,” he said when I asked him about his race.

“I think everybody has to manage to a certain extent on a track like this, but I think we were on the worst side of things, and that makes it extremely difficult. I mean, our whole race was very tricky.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have the race car to fight with the guys in front. McLaren always had the same gap on us compared to the beginning of the year. Red Bull did a step from Monza and are the same level of McLaren. Mercedes now is at the same level of McLaren and Red Bull.

“And then there’s us. It’s not easy, obviously, because you want to fight for better positions, but at the moment, it just feels like we are kind of passengers to the car, and we cannot extract much more.”

There’s more than air of resignation about Leclerc at the moment. He’s accepted that the situation won’t change given the lack of developments in the pipeline as like others Maranello focusses all its energies on 2026.

“I don’t think there will be anything special,” he said. “The picture we’ve seen this weekend is going to be what the rest of the season looks like for us.”

It looks increasingly like Ferrari will end this year without a win, other than Hamilton’s success in the Shanghai sprint.

Leclerc has been through some tough times, but this one hurts given the optimism heading into the season.

“I wouldn’t describe it as the most difficult,” he said. “I think every time you don’t fight for wins, it’s difficult. But obviously coming from a year like last year, where you are fighting for the constructors’ World Championship, and then you come here with high expectations, you’re below your expectations from the beginning, and you don’t even see a progression throughout the year, it’s not easy.

“It takes a lot of energy, but that doesn’t demotivate me. It motivates me, if anything, much more to try and turn the situation around. But it’s very tough, especially after a race like today, where you are not even fighting for a podium, and you have to manage lots of issues. It’s just not a nice feeling.”

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October 5, 2025 · 6:51 am

Bearman makes up for Baku frustration with Singapore Q3 charge

The Haas driver will start from an encouraging P9 on the Singapore grid

Qualifying in Singapore saw an excellent effort from Oliver Bearman as the Haas Formula 1 team driver secured P9, providing some redemption after disappointment in Azerbaijan.

In Baku the team was very quick throughout practice. Indeed the rookie was an impressive fifth on Friday and eighth in FP3, benefiting from having done the race the previous year.

However things fell apart in qualifying and after tapping the wall in Q1 and again in Q2 he was left stranded in 15th on the grid.

Singapore was always going to be a tricky one as it was a track Bearman didn’t know. He was a solid 12th on Friday, but then things really came together in qualifying as he made Q3 for only the third time this year, having been 10th at Suzuka and eighth at Silverstone until a red flag penalty sent him down the grid.

This time at least he gets to start from his rightful place, and he’s on the clean side.

“Definitely happy,” he said when I asked him about his session. “Yesterday I was not the fastest, but I think I was building up well to this track, which is certainly a tough one. And it’s the first time that I’ve had to learn a street track for a while, because you do all the other ones in F2, but this one you don’t.

“Having slept on it, coming back, I felt like I was a bit more on it. And straight away from the first lap of P3 some corners that I couldn’t quite figure out yesterday were clicking, which is normally the case for myself.

“And then quali just went well. We had a clean session, every lap was improving, the car felt good. When the car feels like that underneath you it’s easy to get lap time out of it, because it’s very predictable.

“It’s a good feeling, considering where we started, at least with my confidence level and stuff, I think we did a good job.”

Bearman certainly deserves a bit of good fortune after facing a few disappointments with grid penalties and the like this year.

“It’s been a long time coming as well,” he said. “In Baku I think we were on for a result very similar to this one, until I got caught out by the wind. So it’s been a few races now that I think we’ve been really up there.

“In Monza, I was a hair away from Q3 as well. So qualifying has been going pretty well recently. I’m glad that we finally have a good result to really show for it, and hopefully we can translate that into a good race.”

He added: “Of course, without the wind, everything is much more stable and consistent. So that makes life much, much easier.

“Every corner feels the same every lap, rather than Baku, which was a question mark. But that was a thing in my head, and probably part of the reason I was a bit slow yesterday, just building up step-by-step.”

He’s already in the top 10 at a race which usually sees some attrition, and now he has to make sure he’s not part of that.

“We’re starting P9, so we don’t have to have such a crazy race,” he said. “Of course, looking forward, but very aware that people can undercut.

“And strategy is quite important here, you can’t really overtake on track, so I think it’s just about covering all of the bases, and hopefully we can have a good one tomorrow.”

If Bearman was happy after qualifying his Haas team mate Esteban Ocon definitely wasn’t. Having been P7 and declared Friday in Singapore his best opening day of the season the Frenchman wasn’t happy with changes for FP3.

He improved the car but a seatbelt issue and then the yellow flag for Pierre Gasly’s stricken car cost him in Q1, and left him a frustrated 19th.

“FP3 was slightly worse than Friday for sure, but we managed to get back to a sensible place at the end of FP3,” he said when I asked about his trouble. “And we were pretty decent.

“In qualifying two issues in two runs, the biggest one being the yellow flag. I tried not to lose too much time, which already is not the thing that you should do on the yellow flag, but I tried to.

“It was a slow corner, so as soon as you release the throttle a little bit, you lose a lot of time, because it’s a lot of time spent there. And I lost three-tenths. The three-tenths was enough to go to Q2 already, and we could have built from there with two more sets of tyres.

“In the first run, an issue that came out of nowhere, that didn’t happen the whole year, the belt, I don’t know, it got clipped somewhere, and I basically couldn’t brake properly on the whole first lap.”

He added: “It was fine on the out lap, and basically, I don’t know what happened on the crotch belt, but on the first braking, when I braked, it completely moved. And I got it exactly in the wrong place… As you can imagine, I couldn’t brake properly.”

After his Azerbaijan weekend fell apart the last thing Ocon needed was more disappointment in Singapore.

“I think Baku was more something that was related to the car in terms of braking, where we struggled, quite a lot of front locking and stuff. I think here was slightly better.

“Even though it wasn’t perfect. I managed to get away with it. We should have been through that’s it, if there was no yellow flag. There’s no rocket science.”

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September 29, 2025 · 3:27 pm

Can Antonelli carry his strong Baku form into Singapore and beyond?

After a tricky spell the Mercedes rookie bounced back with P4 in Azerbaijan

After frustration and costly Friday offs in Zandvoort and Monza and a jarring “underwhelming” review from his boss Kimi Antonelli was in dire need of a troublefree F1 weekend.

With perfect timing he got exactly that in of all places Baku, a tricky venue that caught out many big names over the course of the three days of the Azerbaijan GP.

The Italian qualified a solid fourth, just ahead of unwell Mercedes team mate George Russell, and then logged the same result in the race. Ultimately he lost out to the late-stopping Russell, which was frustrating, but he gained a spot back by passing Liam Lawson just after they had both pitted.

He subsequently pulled away from the Kiwi, who gave him a hand by keeping Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton behind. At a venue where it’s so easy to get it wrong overall it was solid performance, even allowing for the fact that he already knew it from F2.

“Not even a discussion, Monza was pretty poor,” said Antonelli when asked to compare Baku with the previous event. “This track is quite a bit more difficult. And there was no margin of error.

“It was very intense, the pace was very high, and driving-wise, I did a couple of mistakes. But also, fair to say, was the first time in Baku with F1.

“And also, we didn’t do any long running practice. So it was a bit of a discovery, of course, for everyone as well. But still a much better race than Monza.

“It’s been a difficult period and European season, and after all the criticism, and difficult moments, we managed to do a good result. And now is the important thing is to do this consistently.”

Had Antonelli been able to get past Carlos Sainz and claim third it would have been a perfect day, but nevertheless it was a good outcome at a track where there’s so little margin for error.

“Well, it’s a little bit disappointing because the podium was so close,” he said when I asked him about the race. “The hard tyre felt very good, quite a bit better than the medium. And the deg on the hard was minimum, and every lap was just getting better and better.

“So it was a bit of a shame, because I ended up being overcut. But still, I think it was decent performance.

“I was hoping for the podium, to be honest, because I almost got into the DRS of Carlos, but then I started to struggle a bit with the dirty air, especially in the second sector, and the tyres started to suffer a little bit.

“But still a decent performance for the team, because we gained quite a few points in the constructors.’ And now we will try to carry this momentum into Singapore as well.”

The pass on Lawson, who ran out of battery at the end of the straight having used it to defend earlier in the lap, was a useful boost.

“Yeah, I could see when he was using the energy and when he wasn’t,” said Antonelli. “I was struggling quite a bit on traction. I was getting close end of sector one and halfway through sector two.

“But then in all those critical traction phases I was struggling, and just couldn’t get the momentum. And only on hard, I had quite a bit of pace advantage, and I could get past.

“But it’s a shame, because I lost quite a bit of time behind him, especially in the first stint, and probably the outcome could have been different.”

The main thing was that he had pleased Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who was so clearly disappointed following the Italian GP.

“It was a really good rebound after Monza,” said the Austrian. “He had such a difficult spell with the European races. And coming in here with a with a solid P4, running in the front group, that’s something to continue to build on and consolidate and then score more good weekends until the end of the year.”

It was intriguing to learn from Mercedes engineering boss Andrew Shovlin in Baku that due to an issue with the Brackley simulator Antonelli had not been able to conduct his usual preparations for Zandvoort and Monza, which perhaps contributed to his Friday mistakes at both of those venues.

Shovlin also noted that Mercedes has continued to hone Antonelli’s sim programme, and that in turn may have helped to boost his Baku performance.

Can the youngster carry on the good work in Singapore, a track he has yet to sample outside the virtual world, and on to other upcoming venues – most of which he already has some experience of? It will be fascinating to see.

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September 25, 2025 · 10:33 am

Has Lawson’s Baku charge helped to secure his Racing Bulls future?

Fifth place – ahead of Yuki Tsunoda – was the best result of the Kiwi’s career to date

It’s not been an easy season for Liam Lawson, demoted from Red Bull Racing and then largely overshadowed of late by his Racing Bulls team mate Isack Hadjar.

While the Frenchman appears to have all but guaranteed his graduation to the senior team next season Lawson finds himself in a fight to retain his seat in a three-into-two scenario with Yuki Tsunoda and Arvid Lindblad.

Logic suggests that if the F2 driver is promoted – and not everyone in the camp is convinced that he is ready – then Lawson is the favourite to stay on. That would leave Tsunoda without a race seat, and potentially facing a future as reserve – unless Honda helps him to a third driver role at Aston Martin.

Nothing is fixed however. Thus a strong performance from Lawson in Baku that saw him held off a train of cars led by none other than Tsunoda came with perfect timing, and his fifth place will have done him a lot of good.

A great lap in Q3 saw him briefly second on the grid behind Carlos Sainz before Max Verstappen pipped them both.

Third was still a great outcome, but he knew that holding onto it with the two Mercedes immediately behind, and the two McLarens and two Ferraris further back and potentially able to make progress if the race turned into a safety car fest, was always going to be difficult.

In the end Lawson lost out only to the two Brackley cars as George Russell and Kimi Antonelli pushed him down to fifth. It was a decent result, and the confident way in which he kept a pack of potentially faster cars at bay would have done him a lot of good in the Red Bull camp.

“I don’t think we had the speed today to finish on the podium, as much as I would have loved it,” he said when I asked about his race. “And when you start there, obviously part of you tries to make it possible, or feels like it’s possible, and we tried everything today.

“I think we made the right call on pit stops. Tried to cover Kimi, but we just didn’t have the speed today. Part of it’s frustrating, but I think looking at it as a big picture, it’s a great result to finish fifth, and we’ll take that going forward.”

He initially stayed ahead of Antonelli when he came out the pits a couple of laps about the Mercedes rookie had stopped, but the Italian got by him on the straight at the end of the lap.

“I ran out of energy,” he acknowledged. “So frustrating! You see the bar, and you get to the straight, and you know that halfway down the straight you’re going to have nothing left.

“So it’s something I learned from and I made sure that when the next pack of cars came, it never happened. I made sure through the lap that I always had the energy.

“So yeah, big learning point for me in the race. But I think realistically, he [Antonelli] finished 10 seconds or something in front of me, so I don’t think I would have kept him behind for 30-odd laps. It was hard enough to keep the other group behind me.”

Staying ahead of Tsunoda, who had Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc lined up behind him, was far from easy. The Japanese driver had run the opposite strategy to Lawson, having started on the hard.

“For sure, he’s on a fresh set of tyres, on a medium and a grippier tyre, and honestly, I was preparing for him to end up catching me quicker, and I expected him to be faster. Obviously, looking at Max today, they had a great race, and the car looks good.

“So I think when I saw him come out on a better tyre, I was expecting him to catch me faster. But I think our sector three was strong this weekend, where he needed to be. And as I said, for that mistake with Kimi, I made sure that I never ran out of energy again.”

The fact that of all people it was Tsunoda leading the chase was an intriguing twist, especially after the two of them collided at the previous race in Monza, leaving Yuki with damage that compromised his race.

However Lawson insists that their battle for a 2026 seat was not on his mind.

“It’s probably easier to look in and think like that, but when you’re in the car I know the position I’m in. Actually to be honest, I had no idea what position I was in until we crossed the line! But I knew we were in a decent position because of all the cars that were behind me.

“So naturally, you’re just trying to keep the car behind. It was the same with Leclerc. It was the same with Kimi at the start. And at the end of the race obviously, I’m going to try to take a bit more risk to keep it there. So I don’t really think too much like that.”

Fifth was the best result of Lawson’s career to date, and while Tsunoda also enjoyed his strongest race of 2025 in sixth, the Kiwi is looking like a better long-term prospect to stay in the Red Bull family. Hadjar may have quite rightly stolen the headlines, but Lawson has also been a solid top 10 performer at most races since Monaco.

“It’s extremely positive,” he said. “I think the main thing is our car has been consistently good across the board at all sorts of different tracks. So that’s something that is very positive for us.

“And going forward, obviously we need to try and keep that consistency, and if we can just find a little bit more where we’re fighting for very good results. And I think ultimately, today, we didn’t quite have the speed for Williams, but to finish where we are, if we can consistently do that, it’s very strong for us.”

He added: “It’s a consistent car. I think it’s something that we can definitely be proud of that across the board at all sorts of different tracks it’s consistently fast. Doesn’t mean it’s easy to drive, but the speed is in the car, and that’s been something we’ve been able to utilise across the season so far.”

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September 22, 2025 · 8:38 am

How a modest P8 in Baku disguised real progress for Hamilton

He had a bad qualifying session but overall Azerbaijan was a good weekend for the Ferrari driver

For Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari an Azerbaijan GP that looked promising on Friday gradually fell apart, culminating in a lowly eighth place, and a storm in a teacup over a team order mishap.

Nevertheless overall it was a good weekend for Hamilton, who at times – especially when he was fastest overall in FP2 – was showing signs of really coming to terms with a car that he’s been fighting all season.

He went into qualifying believing that he was genuinely in the fight for pole, an indication of how comfortable he felt in the SF-25.

Alas setup changes for Saturday didn’t go in his favour, and he found himself caught out in qualifying as the only driver to commit to soft tyres for the whole of the complicated and interrupted Q1 and Q2 sessions. It didn’t work out, and he was left stuck in P12.

Like poleman Verstappen and two other drivers ahead, he opted for hard tyres at the start, planning to run long and benefit from a safety car or red flag.

He passed Fernando Alonso at the start, and then got Isack Hadjar, and thus made some progress. After his late stop he found himself in P9 behind team mate Charles Leclerc on fresher tyres, and he was given the opportunity to go past and have a go at attacking Lando Norris, who in turn had Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson up ahead.

The usual protocol in such situations is that if you can’t move forward you give the place back before the flag. Lewis tried to do that at the end of the last lap, but he misjudged his retardation and the position of the finish line, and crossed it just in front of Leclerc.

Usually this year finishing a race in the wheel tracks of a McLaren would signal a good performance, but he conceded that P8 was nothing to get too excited about.

“Definitely not where we want to be,” said Hamilton when I asked about his race. “Obviously a disappointing result at the end of the day. But I did go forward from 12th, which was positive.

“I had a good start, and I think my pace was generally good. I was flat out, I was definitely much better, much happier in the car. It was difficult today to close up on the cars ahead. They’re very fast.

“Clearly, qualifying is very important, and we missed out on that. Look at the Williams, where they qualified and finished. But there’s lots of positives to take from it, and definitely bits to draw from the weekend.”

He admitted that his strategy hadn’t played out as planned, while hinting at frustration over decisions taken during the weekend, and not for the first time this season.

“I was going long in the hope there would be some sort of safety car, and there was nothing,” he said. “So that was unfortunate. It’s happened a lot this year, we’re just not seeing any incidents. And everyone’s obviously in that DRS train for quite some time.

“But also I think our setup choice at the end, I think, wasn’t great, and obviously our procedure, our execution in qualifying was not great, which put us in that position. So to be fighting for eighth and ninth is not what we want.

“If we had optimised the weekend, I think it would have been a slightly different day, maybe fourth and fifth.”

He was at least in the fight, and his pass on Hadjar was pretty decent, although he still wasn’t entirely happy.

“I think there’s still some improvements to make in terms of how aggressive I can be,” he noted. “The car has been quite snappy, so I’m still not 100% committed and confident on the braking when I’m attacking on the brakes.

“In the last race I was, but in this race, I didn’t feel so much, with the setup that we ended up having.”

What then of the botched finish? Leclerc wasn’t happy that he didn’t get his place back, but it was more the principle than any concern over trading P9 for his rightful P8.

“Obviously I was quicker, but Charles was gracious to let me by,” said Hamilton. “At the end I got the message really late on, and I was like zoned in on the car in front of me. Even though there was like, zero, 0.001 chance of passing, I was still hopeful.

“And basically, I did lift on the straight and did actually brake, but he missed it by like four-tenths, so that was a misjudgement for myself. So I’ll apologise to Charles. At the end of the day, it’s eighth and ninth. But it won’t happen again.”

The races continue to count down, and Hamilton has seven weekends left in which to log his first elusive GP podium for Ferrari.

“It’s kind of crazy, because we’ve made progress, yet we’ve had results like this through the last few races. But it’s felt like progress. So I think we’re able to do a good weekend, a good result. Just keep at it.

“As I said, if we qualify better, we’re going to be in a much better position to race. I mean, I would give anything for an upgrade!

“Obviously, we don’t have that, we’re focussed on next year’s car, so we just have to do better in optimising and execution.”

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