Tag Archives: Max Verstappen

Piastri’s pass was key to a fantastic victory in Baku

McLaren Formula 1 boss Andrea Stella admits that he thought Oscar Piastri’s crucial passing move on Charles Leclerc would “go wrong”.

He adds that the fact the move succeeded was another demonstration of the Australian’s talent and ability to surprise even his own team.

Piastri slipped past Leclerc at Turn 1 at the start of lap 20, and stayed in the lead for the remainder of the race, while successfully fending off the Ferrari driver.

“I think Oscar just took advantage that his hard tyres were in a really sweet spot when Leclerc pitted ahead of him,” said Stella. “And he just seemed to have an edge to be able to attack him in corner one.

“But if you look where Oscar is coming from, where he attacks Leclerc, in corner one, that’s from quite a far, and still he negotiates the apex in corner one.

“So I think it’s one of those cases in which you have to point out the ability of the driver, because he delays the braking point so much, and still negotiates corner one in such a precise way.

“He doesn’t even have to rely on Leclerc conceding any space. So it’s one of those cases in which just, I think the talent, the precision in the execution, from Oscar’s point of view, just made a difference.”

Stella admitted that his first thought was the move would not work.

“When I watched it live, and I saw him going, my instinct said, like, it’s going to go wrong, because the delay in the braking point was kind of like, if Leclerc braked there, that must be the braking point, and he’s delaying.

“So my instinct was, it’s going to go wrong. But that’s why I wanted to emphasise in my answer before, just the precision in the execution to then actually be on the inside apex kerb in corner one.

“So yeah, I was surprised, but Oscar is always surprising us with his talent, with his ability, and I would say today he gave also a demonstration of his mental strength.

“He drove like a driver that has a lot of experience, that has been under this kind of pressure before, that can move with one eye at the mirror, with the other eye of where is the braking point?

“And Oscar did it again with a great level of precision, and pretty controlled. Even when he was talking on the radio he seemed very much under control. So a phenomenal driver, brilliant drive today.”

On several occasions Piastri successfully defended from Leclerc at the first corner while also being able to get out of it with enough speed to move left and block him into Turn 2. 

Asked if the characteristics of the car helped Stella said: “I think it’s a combination, 90% is Oscar, I think, his judgment.

“The most difficult one will have been the first one, because when you do the first one of these kind of manoeuvres, actually you don’t have references. I think after the first one, he will have found some references.

“And therefore, I think later on, it became easier for him. But when you do it the first time, you really have to judge things very precisely, not to be under attack braking for corner three with the next DRS zone, or for corner two.

“I think where the 10% of the car comes to us came to Oscar’s advantage is that the car is good traction. I think we know that our rear end is good, especially when we are around 100kph or more, which is where you are in corner one.

“And I think this is definitely something that Oscar did exploit, but it wouldn’t work without this precision from a driving point of view.”

Norris recovered to fourth after his qualifying disaster

Lando Norris says his charge to fourth place in Azerbaijan was a much better result than anticipated, but the McLaren star was still left frustrated by the “unfair” yellow flag that saw him stranded in 17^th in qualifying.

Norris has to back off and abort his final lap in Q1 after a yellow flag was briefly displayed as Esteban Ocon toured back to the pits after clipping the wall.

He then gained two places on the final grid after Pierre Gasly was disqualified and Lewis Hamilton demoted to a pitlane start.

A long opening stint on the hard tyres moved him up the order from his initial 15th, and despite losing time behind fellow hard tyre starter Alex Albon he was able to pass Max Verstappen on the road for sixth.

The Perez/Sainz crashed gifted him two places in the closing laps, although title rival Verstappen also benefited.

Meanwhile his team mate Oscar Piastri won the race, showing just how competitive the car was in Baku.

“I don’t think we could have asked for a lot more today,” said Norris. “A good start, good strategy. I would have loved to have got past Alex a bit earlier. He made my life tough. But I couldn’t pass.

“So I don’t think I could have asked for a lot more. It’s definitely better than we were all expecting before today.

“So yeah, fourth was a great result. To be ahead of Max, just on merit and from pace and strategy, again, was a good result. So I mean, the car was flying. Because it was so good, it almost made me more annoyed about yesterday, and how silly that yellow flag was.”

Asked for his view on the qualifying flag incident he said: “No, it wasn’t fair. You don’t have to be a scientist to work it out. I don’t know. This is not for me to decide. It’s not for me to say it was unfair, and for it to ruin my whole weekend. I know I got a fourth today, and that’s not bad, but it could have been better.

“And I think Oscar showed what was possible today. So it was unfair. There was no yellow the whole lap, and he put a yellow out just as I come past, did I go off the track just before it. Yes? Would I still easily have got into the top 15? Yes. So I know there’s a lot of people that thought that that ruined my lap.

“I was still easily in, even with my off-track, I only lost like, a couple tenths, and I still easily would have been in. So yeah, people can say what they want, and I find a lot of it funny. 

“But this was out of my control, and it was something that was unfair, and cost me a good amount of points in the championship today, and kind of ruined my weekend.

“So it’s disappointing, especially because of how good the car was today. Like I said, I’m the guy that’s thinking of what could have been, not how we did today, necessarily, but I’m very happy with today still.”

Norris said that team simulations put him in eighth place at the end behind the cars from the top four teams, although Hamilton’s pitlane start gifted him one spot.

“We would have been happy with eighth,” he said. “We just expected the top four teams to go, obviously me being eighth car. So we expected them to go and beat everyone else, but I got into 10th, I think quite quickly, I was in 10th already, I think five, six laps into the race.

“I had a good start, good opening lap, even on the hard tyre, and everyone else on the medium. So that’s a good kickstart to the whole day. And then I got behind Alex.

“I couldn’t do a lot. Carlos got past. I fought Max for a little bit, and Max just getting stuck behind me for a few laps, and overheated his tyres, and I could race against him.

“And Alex boxed. And then this made my race. As soon as Alex boxed, my pace was, I think, the best on track, even on the hards from the beginning of the race, and I managed to create a good gap and just unlock all the potential that the car had.

“So, yeah, eighth was our target, but we knew doing a hard start, and if things went well, better was possible. But it’s hard to anticipate and know what that was going to be.”

Norris admitted that he didn’t expect to be able to pass Verstappen on the road.

“A little bit surprised,” he said. “I mean, when you start 15th I didn’t really expect to beat him, especially because they were boxed and were behind me. So I was about 20-22 seconds behind on real terms where they were.

“So I played the game well. I couldn’t defend against Carlos, but I could defend against Max. But the main point was I defended against Checo, and just allowed him to not get ahead of Oscar.

“And then that pretty much allowed Oscar to go and get a win. So I did my small part for the team, which I’m very happy for, because it got us to P1 in the constructors’. And that’s really the thing that makes me happiest.”

Verstappen had a difficult time in Baku qualifying

Max Verstappen endured another difficult Formula 1 qualifying session in Baku, and the Dutchman will start Sunday’s race in sixth place – two spots behind Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez.

Verstappen was generally happier with the car over the weekend after a floor tweak since Monza. However, a last minute set-up change for qualifying made the car worse again.

He still managed to top the times in Q2, but the final session proved difficult, and he made a mistake on his first run.

“It’s always difficult to know of course what will happen in Q3,” he said when asked by this writer if he’d expected more after being fastest in Q2.

“But as soon as I went out in Q1 the first lap, I just felt the car took a step back. We made some changes, and the car just became incredibly unpredictable, difficult, just because of the changes that we made.

“And of course I’m a bit disappointed with that, because you always try to, of course, optimise things and try to make it better. And unfortunately, we just tipped it over the edge.

“Yeah, a shame that that happened into qualifying. Then, of course, my first one in Q3 I lost it in the last corner. Otherwise, you’re still fighting for P2, P3, but then you still have a run, you can still improve your lap time.

“And yeah, just didn’t have the feeling in the car. I didn’t feel comfortable, because the car was difficult.

“And when you don’t feel comfortable and you can’t attack corners, you’re probably a bit under it. And yeah, that’s what’s going to happen.”

Asked if the car was still the “monster” that he described in Monza he denied that was the case.

“No, no, I think what we did improve the car. But now with the setup we tried to of course make a few things better, and unfortunately, it went the other way.

“We changed change some things on the car, where the car just started jumping around a lot, so you lose contact patch with the tarmac.

“I was not happy with the car, already from lap one Q1, so I knew that it was going to be tough qualifying regardless.

“I think my lap in Q2 was actually good, considering all the issues that I had, because personally, I was not happy with how the car was behaving. But of course, you still tried to do the best you can.”

Regarding what has been improved he said: “I think the balance disconnect, but I think naturally it’s any way the track for it.

“But yeah, we’re still working and fine tuning that further from now onwards, to try and just get the balance disconnect more together. Let’s say like that.”

Norris will start a disastrous 17th in Baku

Lando Norris admits that he doesn’t expect “anything magical” to happen for him in Sunday’s Azerbaijan GP after he qualified a frustrated 17^th.

The McLaren driver needed a good time on his final lap in Q1 in order to progress to the second session.

He ran over the kerb on the exit of the lefthander that leads onto the long pit straight, but continued his lap.

However he then caught yellow flags that were displayed as Esteban Ocon toured back to the pits with a puncture after clipping the wall. Having backed off he aborted the lap and pitted.

The grid position is a clear blow to his title aspirations, although rival Max Verstappen will only start sixth.

Asked by this writer if his only hope to score decent points on Sunday was to rely on a strategy Norris agreed.

“I think everything’s kind of going to have to be done with strategy, because you can’t overtake,” he said.

“There’s plenty of cars at the back, which have just kind of taken all the wing off and just hope for the best. And that makes it impossible for a lot of cars to overtake them.

“The car’s quick, and we kind of hope that I can come into our hands and at some point I can get clean air.

“But on a street circuit, everything gets backed up so much, you just kind of get forced into a position, and you can’t do a lot at times. So we’ll hope for the best. But I don’t expect anything magical, unless strategy comes into play.”

Asked what is possible on Sunday he said: “I don’t know how to answer, try and race and go forwards and overtake. But it’s not as simple as saying it.”

Although he was in the position of having to make his final Q1 lap count Norris denied the suggestion that he was on the back foot as the session unfolded.

“No, I wasn’t really on the back foot,” he said. “Just the guy ahead of me crashed and there were yellow flags. I was feeling good.

“I mean, when you have a 2kms two straight and you left lift at the beginning – of course, so nothing I could do, honestly. So of course, a bit disappointed and frustrated, but nothing I can change.”

Bearman had an encouraging first day in Baku

Oliver Bearman impressed his Haas team in Azerbaijan on Friday on what he called a “dry run” ahead of his fulltime Formula 1 graduation next season.

The teenager has stepped into the team as a one-off replacement for Kevin Magnussen, who has been banned for a race after accumulating 12 penalty points.

Baku is his first full F1 race weekend after he was called into action for Ferrari on Saturday in Jeddah earlier this year.

He logged 10th place in FP2, just 0.072s shy of team mate Nico Hulkenberg, at a venue where he shone in F2 last year.

“I was really happy with how we finished,” he said. “The main thing was that I completed all the laps we could. A lot of red flags, a lot of interruptions.

“But I was pretty happy with how things went. I was building up step-by-step, and at the end, I found good confidence with the car. So, yeah, good way to go to sleep and start fresh start tomorrow.

“This whole weekend is a dry run for next year. I’m learning so much. Today was my first FP2 session!

“I’m in a much better place than I was few months ago going into FP3, which is great. And the track is making a big step every time I run. And these are things that I wouldn’t know. It’s my first time doing the full weekend, and I’m learning a lot.”

After the session his engineer praised him on the radio for an “excellent” long run performance, and he was pleased to receive such positive feedback.

“Yeah, it was an encouraging day overall,” he said. “I started with a few question marks. This is a really tough track, and my second F1 race is going to be on another street track.

“So it’s not easy, but I was really happy with how the day went. I made a good step from FP1 to FP2 and I felt comfortable with the car. So what more can you ask for?”

He added: “I’m focusing really on myself, and the encouraging part is that I feel confident in the car, I’m comfortable, which was a bit less the case in FP1, but with the track conditions like that, it’s really tough.

“FP2 I was feeling comfortable, and I felt like I could do what I wanted with the car, and I was controlling it. FP1 was a bit more messy, just for the track state.”