What we learned from wild 2025 Azerbaijan GP

We offer our thoughts following each race weekend this year. Here are our biggest takeaways after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Verstappen isn't dead yet

Max Verstappen was convinced after a poor race in Hungary that Red Bull couldn't win another race this season. Since then, he's won twice, including a grand slam victory in Baku on Sunday.

Over the course of the last two races - victories in Monza and Azerbaijan - the reigning champ has trimmed his deficit from 104 points to 69. It might seem preposterous, but Verstappen isn't ready to hand over his championship yet.

The gap between Verstappen's class and the rest of the field was never more evident than in Saturday's qualifying. During a session that featured a record six red flags with numerous drivers - including championship leader Oscar Piastri - ending up in the wall, the Red Bull driver was unflappable and delivered his first Baku pole.

The Dutch pilot has been a part of all three qualifying sessions in F1 history that had five or more red flags (Imola 2022, Brazil 2024, and Baku 2025). Verstappen took pole in two of the three. But more importantly, he won all three races. When chaos comes around, no driver emerges from the rubble unscathed more often than Verstappen. For that reason alone, he belongs in the conversation for the drivers' title, even if the chances seem remote.

Even Piastri is capable of crumbling

McLaren had a chance to leave Baku as the first constructors' champions to clinch with seven races remaining. Instead, the team has to hope the disaster in Azerbaijan didn't foreshadow much bigger problems.

Whether it was pit lane or in the cockpit, McLaren didn't just fall short of expectation, it did so in humiliating fashion. Lando Norris banged walls in qualifying and ended Sunday in seventh; his worst result in race finishes this season. His day was also impacted by yet another slow pit stop. But for the first time, Norris and the pit crew's mistakes weren't the biggest talking point. The alleged ice-cold Piastri looked flustered and panicked. A crash in qualifying got even worse as his race ended on Lap 1 with a trip into the wall following a mistimed start.

Those blunders meant McLaren scored only six points, its fewest since the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

McLaren hasn't had the easiest time since the end of the summer break. There have been slow pit stops, a mechanical retirement for Norris in Zandvoort, team order controversy in Monza, and now a poor weekend from Piastri. The silver lining is that McLaren's chase for another constructors' crown should still end in Singapore. Maybe the team could make it look a little easier though?

Sainz was the missing piece for Williams' project

Williams team principal James Vowles told theScore at the Canadian Grand Prix that he believed a "lucky" podium could fall into the team's lap this season. Well, Vowles got something even better in Baku: a podium on merit.

Carlos Sainz's podium wasn't only the first of the Vowles era, but it was also Williams' first in a full-length race since Baku in 2017. It was an incredible moment for Vowles, who spent a significant portion of 2024 trying to get the Spaniard to buy into the Williams project. Sunday's triumph showed why he bought in.

Even prior to the Azerbaijan weekend, progress wasn't hard to find for Williams. There are numerous points finishes and a few top-five results. However, a podium remained elusive, even while unlikely candidates Racing Bulls and Sauber found its drivers on the top steps. Turns out Sainz's experience and composure was the missing ingredient. All he needed to do was be patient.

Sainz, who had only 16 points heading into Baku, found himself becoming a bit of an afterthought with Alex Albon soaking up most of the praise. The Spaniard flipped the script this time, converting his front-row start to a podium, while his teammate was left in no-man's land after a Q1 exit quickly ended any hopes of a positive showing.

Sainz called Baku the best podium of his career and proclaimed it wouldn't be the last of his Williams tenure. At this rate, Vowles' vision might not be a project for much longer.