Bortoleto has agreed an F1 deal – and the consensus is that it’s with McLaren
New FIA F2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli finally agreed a deal with a Formula 1 team prior to securing the title Sunday’s deciding race in Qatar.
Sources have indicated that a contract was signed over the weekend, although there has been no official confirmation of where he is going.
Fornaroli has reached the top rung of the sport without the support of any F1 junior programmes, beating multiple drivers who are associated with GP teams.
He won the 2024 F3 title with Trident despite not winning a single race over his two years in the category.
He moved up to F2 this year with Invicta, and an impressive rookie season has seen him win three sprints and one feature thus far, boosting his reputation after his winless F3 career. He clinched the title with second place in the Qatar feature race on Sunday.
He thus repeated the feat achieved by his friend Gabriel Bortoleto, who won the F3/F2 titles in 2023-’24 – with the same Trident/Invicta combination – and has since enjoyed a strong F1 rookie season with Sauber.
After clinching the title he said: “I have an idea of what’s happening with my future. My focus still remains on the last round of F2 in the meantime. My manager and management are doing an amazing job, and I’m very confident for what’s next. And I hope you will be able to see what will happen in few weeks’ time.”
Multiple sources have linked Fornaroli with McLaren, which would be a logical choice given that the team has cut its links with Alex Dunne and has plenty of capacity to give an F2 graduate FP1 and TPC running, and to have someone permanently on hand as third driver.
He would in effect be a direct replacement for Bortoleto, who was released from his McLaren contract to take up the Sauber opportunity after the team had invested in his development.
While he appears to be set for McLaren the 20-year-old’s name has also been linked with Ferrari, and a deal that would involve TPC running and FP1 sessions, including seat time with Haas.
Adding a proven talent to the Maranello talent pool would be an interesting move given that Oliver Bearman is being lined up to eventually follow Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, and Fornaroli’s presence would give both teams more future options.
However where it doesn’t quite add up is that F3 star Rafael Camara is regarded as the team’s main long-term prospect, with an F1 development programme being built around the Brazilian alongside his F2 commitments in 2026. The team also has Dino Begonavic in its ranks.
Fornaroli is known to have been in the frame for a third driver role at Audi, and while it’s thought that he has signed a long-term deal elsewhere he has also been mentioned in connection with doing the upcoming Abu Dhabi rookie test with Sauber.
The paddock consensus is that Tsunoda won’t have a race seat – but Honda is still trying
A late intervention from Honda using a TPC car power unit supply as leverage could help to give Yuki Tsunoda a reprieve in the Red Bull camp for 2026.
Next season Isack Hadjar is set to graduate to Red Bull Racing as Tsunoda’s replacement, while F2 star Arvin Lindblad is being lined up for a promotion to Racing Bulls.
That leaves the remaining Racing Bulls seat down to a choice between incumbent Liam Lawson and the demoted Tsunoda.
Both drivers signed contract extensions several weeks ago, moving the latest date for a decision over next season from September 30 to November 30, which explains why Helmut Marko has made it clear that the choice would be made over the Qatar GP weekend.
The consensus in the paddock is that in the wake of Tsunoda’s difficult year alongside Max Verstappen at RBR he will be sidelined, and Lawson will get the nod to stay on.
However RB sources insist that the final decision has not been made, and thus Tsunoda can still earn his place with a strong weekend in Doha.
He did his case no harm by outpacing Verstappen to qualify fifth for the Qatar sprint on a day when Lawson was only 17th fastest.
If it really is still a close call between Lawson and Tsunoda then the latter’s longtime supporter Honda could tip the balance.
It has some leverage as Red Bull needs power units for the TPC cars of its two teams – and that requires a brand new deal given that the Japanese manufacturer’s current commitment effectively ends with the upcoming Abu Dhabi test before it switches its future focus to Aston Martin.
The major rules changes reduce the specific relevance of the older cars relative to the new models.
Nevertheless an extensive TPC programme would be a vital part of Lindblad’s preparations for and development during the 2026 season, and without Honda PUs the only option would be to rent someone else’s car.
Honda is thus in a position to dictate terms, and the Japanese company is understood to be using the situation to encourage Red Bull to give the Racing Bulls race seat to Tsunoda.
It’s understood that talks are going on between the two parties this weekend.
If Tsunoda is left without a race seat he could still transition into a reserve role across the two Red Bull teams, or potentially look for a similar job and a fresh start elsewhere.
Aston Martin is an obvious safety net, although the team recently announced Jak Crawford as its third driver, noting that he will be “reserve at all races.”
Haas has moved up from P9 to P8 and has bigger ambitions over the last four races
For the Haas Formula 1 team the Mexican GP saw a dream result, with Ollie Bearman’s fourth place and ninth for Esteban Ocon allowing it to jump Sauber for eighth in the World Championship.
The focus is now firmly ahead, with Aston Martin and Racing Bulls both within a 10 point range.
Mexico was just reward for a well-executed weekend, with Bearman obviously doing a brilliant job in the cockpit and the team making a smart strategy call that ultimately paid off.
It also came in the wake of the decision to introduce an upgrade package at the US GP that only has a life of six race weekends in order to provide a late season boost in the constructors’ battle. That already paid off on its debut in Austin with a ninth place for Bearman, and Mexico brought more vindication.
“We’re definitely happy,” team boss Ayao Komatsu told this writer. “Without the upgrade, I don’t think we could have had the Austin result, I don’t think we could have had this result.
“So it’s already proven that regardless of championship position, because like I keep saying, a result is a result, you cannot 100% control that. Let’s face it, we moved up one position, but they [Sauber] are only two points behind. It’s nothing, absolutely nothing.
“All I’m trying to say is we’ve just got to try the get the best out of the car and drive and execute every single race weekend. If we do that, I’m sure we can move up. But there’s just no point counting the points.”
The team now has its sights set on getting ahead of both Aston Martin and Racing Bulls over the course of these last four race weekends.
“Even before I said P6 is possible,” said Komatsu. “But again, it’s just no point thinking like that. A 22 points gap with six races remaining – of course, it was possible, but there’s no point thinking, how are we going to get 23 points? It may not happen. But that’s out of our control, right?
“That we suddenly got 14 points, great, it’s now 10 points to P6. But again, it’s not about how are we going to get 10 points? It’s more about how are we going to start Brazil FP1? Make sure we get the sprint quali right.
“If we do everything right, we can score points in the sprint. And then that puts us another step ahead for main quali and race. So I think it’s very important for us to focus what’s in front of us, and that mindset, honestly, is the one let us make the right decision for the second pit stop [in Mexico].
“Imagine if we were too hung up on the podium?. I’m sure we would have lost the podium with Max coming through. I’m not sure if we could have hung on to P4 with Piastri coming through with the new tyre. So yeah, I think the mindset is very important.”
That strategy call was a difficult one to make, but it was the right one, and it showed signs of clear thought and a good process.
Bearman was running in an unexpected P3, and he had the option to stay out, run to the flag, and try to hold on.
However when cars behind pitted they not only gave themselves fresh tyres with which to fight, but also helped Max Verstappen to have a clearer run at the Haas. The team decided that a solid shot at P4 was better than risking all trying to hold on to third and potentially tumbling down the order in the closing laps. The collective head ruled the heart.
“At that point we were going for the one stop,” Komatsu explained. “So if nobody pitted, we’d have just stayed out and done the one-stop, because I think Max would have got stuck in the DRS train. He wouldn’t have been able to overtake.
“But the minute those two cars behind made a pit stop, that means Max had George [Russell] to go through, then us to go through, pick us off one by one. He would have done that. Then we already made 70% decision to box after those two cars pitted, but as soon as we heard that George is boxing as well, there was no doubt.”
Giving up P3 was the logical move: “We’d only lose position to Max, and he was going to overtake us anyway. So that wasn’t about covering for undercut, it was just about those guys are already converted, and Max was going to come through, so we had nothing to lose.
“Max has got tyre delta. That’s probably why those two guys decided we’re not going to be able to defend. So as soon as we lost that buffer of cars, it’s not going to happen. And you saw how close Max finished with Leclerc, then you saw how much behind we were compared to Leclerc.
“So imagine Max had completely taken us easily, and then how far we’re going to drop back against those cars who made a second stop? So for me, at that point, it’s what’s in front of us? What’s our objective? We’ve got to make sure we get P4.”
Bearman had put his car in a podium position with an early charge that saw him fighting with drivers in the top teams.
“That was good racing, right?,” said Komatsu. “That was amazing, out of Turn 6. That was great racing. And then first stint we had Max behind. Second stint, we had a Mercedes behind. Third stint we had a Mercedes and McLaren behind. I mean, what a privilege to be racing against those top guys.”
Bearman has had something of a messy first full season, getting into scrapes and earning a few penalties, and a good result was just what he needed.
“We’ve been working with Ollie, of course, continuously,” Komatsu noted. “And like I said so many times, his potential is no question. It’s about harnessing that, managing to build up the weekend, nurturing that talent.
“Singapore was very good. Austin was again, very good, but a couple of things, in the sprint, and then the race, incidents. In Mexico missing FP1, jumping in for FP2, bang. And then such a tight qualifying.”
“And then essentially the entire race he was fighting against three top teams, Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren – teams we shouldn’t be fighting. So that is amazing. Track position, free air so much more important. It’s important everywhere. But here with all the temperature restrictions, it’s so important.”
There are fine margins in the midfield these days, and just missing out on Q3 consigned Ocon to a much more difficult race, hampered by traffic. The Frenchman also didn’t feel well during the weekend.
“Austin, the high speed stability, he still struggled, whereas Ollie got the most out of it,” said Komatsu. “This circuit he got everything out of it. He’s not being well this weekend, all the way through, he had a massive headache.
“You look at Esteban’s quali performance. He lost Q3 by three hundredths. He was five-hundredths behind Ollie. They’re basically the same pace all the way through this weekend.
“And then during the race, what obviously made Esteban’s race more difficult was he was stuck behind Tsunoda. During the first stint, he was very happy with the car. He was clearly quicker than Tsunoda. He had a very similar pace to Piastri, so he had the same pace as Ollie. What kills you is the traffic.”
So what then of the last four races – can Bearman and Ocon find enough points to move the team to P7 or P6?
“Honestly, I’ll be least looking forward to Vegas, because it’s a long straight again,” said Komatsu. “In low downforce we are not as competitive, but most of the circuits, like Brazil, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, should be OK. Honestly, because margins are so small, there’s no point looking too far ahead.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.
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.”
The Ferrari driver ended his qualifying session in the barriers and will start P10
Charles Leclerc has a special relationship with Baku, as his run of four pole positions for Ferrari at the street track attests.
This time around he couldn’t find that magic recipe, and while he was second fastest to team mate Lewis Hamilton on what looked like a promising Friday for the Italian team, he wasn’t entirely happy.
The following day his qualifying session ended with a heavy shunt early in Q3, consigning him to P10 on the grid.
With Hamilton two places behind a weekend that started with a sniff of victory has turned sour for the Maranello camp.
“Obviously frustrated, because it’s a track that I normally enjoy, and where things flow quite naturally,” said Leclerc when I asked him about the session.
“But it’s been the complete opposite the whole weekend, and I’ve just been struggling a lot to find the limits of the car and to find the feeling with the car.
“So I knew going into qualifying that it was a bit of an uphill work, and I’ve changed quite a lot the car going into qualifying, and I felt a lot better. And Q1 and all the laps on the soft felt much better. And then we went on a medium, which we had kept because we thought it was the best tyre.
“And today, with these temperatures, it was just impossible for me to switch them on. And difficult conditions or not, I don’t think that this is the reason. I think we were just lacking a lot of pace on the medium.
“I was probably seven or eight tenths off before the mistake, and I was pushing like crazy. So something felt off there, and we’ll look into it. But yeah, it was difficult.”
Although there were spots of rain in the air much like Oscar Piastri – who crashed a little later – Leclerc didn’t want to blame the conditions, noting that Carlos Sainz did a lap that was ultimately good enough for the front row.
“When you look at Carlos’s lap at that time, when you look at others right around me, I don’t think so. There were some spits of rain, but I don’t think it was actually wetting the track. So I don’t think that this is an excuse or whatsoever.
“I tried to judge the grip I would have, even though it was very difficult to judge because I had very little grip from the beginning of the lap with these tyres again, but misjudged it.”
Leclerc’s disappointment with the medium tyre was intriguing given that Hamilton was frustrated that he hadn’t had a chance to use it when he didn’t get a quick enough lap in on the softs in Q2.
“I had the same point of view as Lewis,” Leclerc noted. “I thought I had an advantage going into quali with the mediums, and then I put them on, and I kind of regretted thinking I had an advantage, because it was extremely tricky.
“So we’ll look at what did change on track in order for it to be so difficult, you look Q2 first run with my medium, I nearly didn’t make it through Q2, I went long quite a few times. It was just extremely digital, the grip, and with a soft I didn’t have quite that feeling.”
If Sunday’s race is anything like qualifying safety cars or even red flags could create strategic opportunities, and even from P10 Leclerc could yet earn a decent result.
“I know that obviously we can still have a great race from where we start,” he said. “And yeah, my target will be to look forward tomorrow, and do a great race. We’ve normally had very good Saturdays and very bad Sundays here, I hope to turn the situation around this weekend.”
Adam Cooper F1 