McLaren’s Oscar Piastri is a cold-blooded assassin behind the wheel. As I suggested in my original F1 Season of the Century story, this second-year driver has the unique combination of skill, motivation and killer instinct to win F1 championships. We haven’t seen a ruthless talent like this since Max Verstappen joined the grid, and it was on full display in the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Given the stakes of this exceptional season, we’re not only seeing exciting qualifying sessions and races. But free practice is also exciting and even meaningful. FP3 in Baku felt like qualifying. The margins are so tight that every little setup change and upgrade can mean the difference between P1 and P8 or worse for the top four teams. We saw Verstappen on top in FP1 after Leclerc crashed out, and then Charles Leclerc in FP2, where the top three including Sergio Perez (P2) and Lewis Hamilton (P3) were separated by just 66 thousandths of a second. And finally George Russell “won” FP3. There’s nothing and everything at stake in practice nowadays. Plus, there are three sprint weekends over the final seven races, where make-or-break points are available.
The practice sessions in Baku setup a qualifying that was anyone’s guess. The big shock was Norris’ Q1 exit due largely to a questionable yellow flag during his final lap. The track evolved quite a bit during Q1, so the checkered-flag lap was critical for all. This left Norris in P17, though he’d end up starting at P15 due to penalties for Alpine and Mercedes.
In a thrilling Q3, Leclerc secured his fourth pole position in Baku followed by Piastri (P2), Carlos Sainz (P3), Perez (P4), Russell (P5) and Verstappen (P6). This was the first time Perez out-qualified his teammate since Miami 2023, and this time it was purely on merit. Baku is perhaps Perez’s strongest track, and Verstappen continued to struggle with the RB20 despite claims after Monza that the team had identified the issues. This also flipped the so-called “papaya rules” on its head. Prior to the weekend, McLaren stated that Piastri would, in fact, support Norris in his championship fight with Verstappen, if and when he could. But the starting order meant that Norris would more likely be supporting Piastri.
There were so many questions heading into Sunday’s race. How far would Norris be able to recover? I estimated P5 was possible given McLaren’s pace and the likelihood of a safety car in Baku. Would Leclerc convert his pole position to a victory, having failed on his past three attempts? Would McLaren score enough points to take the lead in the World Constructors’ Championship (WCC) from Red Bull? Would Ferrari close the gap enough to make the WCC a three-horse race? Would Perez redeem his season and claim a third victory in Baku? All of these were likely scenarios and yet all of them couldn’t be true.
We also had a number of compelling sub-plots, if you will. Oliver Bearman sat in for a race-banned Kevin Magnussen at Haas. This is the seat he’ll have for 2025. Bearman previously drove for Sainz in Saudi Arabia, where he finished in the points for Ferrari at P7. It’s worth noting he qualified P11 ahead of teammate and qualifying specialist Nico Hulkenberg at P13 after only a few practice sessions in the car this season. Then we saw the Williams drivers, Alex Albon and rookie temp driver, Franco Colapinto, qualify P10 and P9 respectively. Which begged the question: Is Williams shedding its backmarker status to become a legit mid-field challenger?
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is 51 laps around a technical street course in the city of Baku. It is characterized by slow corners, close walls and two maximum-speed straightaways. The final straight is where most of the overtaking happens, either as a function of superior straight-line speed or else a move into turn one—both with the benefit of DRS. In years when certain teams had a pace advantage, they’d breeze past and complete the pass before the braking zone. In 2024, though, the fine margins between the top four teams mean that every overtake has to be defended, and none will come easy.
There was so much going on during the Grand Prix that broadcasters had a tough time keeping up with all of the action. First, you had the tight battle between Leclerc, Piastri and Perez at the front. Next, you had Norris inching his way forward from P15 on an alternate strategy, which started on the hard tires for a longer first stint. Then you had the battles between Haas and Williams for the final points positions, where Albon and Colapinto were also on alternate strategies.
Through the first third of the race, it appeared Leclerc was in control. He built a decent gap to Piastri and Perez ahead of the only planned pitstop to go from medium to hard tires. During the pitstop melee and out lap, however, where we were also keeping up with everything else happening on track, that gap was eliminated. Perez then attempted to undercut Piastri, but Norris was there to hold him up in sector two (papaya rules!), which enabled Piastri to emerge from the pits just ahead of Perez. The decisive moment of the Grand Prix came on lap 20.
Against his race engineer’s better judgement, Piastri sent it up the inside of turn one on Leclerc. He’d later admit he saw a 50/50 chance of making the corner in braking so late. He got it done, but Leclerc still had a better exit coming from the outside line. This meant Piastri had to defend (like a killer) through turns two and three. In my view, this was the overtake of the season (so far) in both getting it done and making it stick. Not to mention becoming the difference between victory and P2.
For the next 20 laps or so, Piastri and Leclerc—McLaren and Ferrari—would battle one another for every tenth, all while Perez stalked them from P3. Piastri was losing his front tires. Leclerc was losing his rears. At one point, both cars drifted sideways over the curb leading into the final straight, pushing to the absolute limit. When Piastri had to defend into turn one, always protecting the inside line, it brought Perez back into DRS range with Leclerc, who was then put under pressure. This race had zero dull moments.
Meanwhile, Norris was closing a 15-second gap to Verstappen on fresh medium tires with about 12 laps to go. Russell came alive on his second stint, overtaking Verstappen on the inside before turn one. And Sainz was stalking Perez in clean air. Norris caught Verstappen with a few laps left, passing him around the outside, and was also tracking toward a bonus point for the fastest lap. This gave Verstappen a free pitstop to secure the fastest lap if he pitted right away. Then all hell broke loose.
By the penultimate lap, Piastri had a commanding gap and was setting up for victory. Leclerc had cooked his rear tires and was looking vulnerable to Perez. But Sainz had joined the party and could probably taste P2 given the struggles of his teammate. As the three drivers barreled into turn one, Leclerc protected the inside line. Perez tried to take him on the outside, which opened the door and allowed Sainz to pass him on the inside. Perez got a better exit from the outside and had the pace to retake the position. Except that Sainz was focused on Leclerc ahead, while also realizing his exit was compromised, so he moved to the left in an attempt to squeeze Perez on the approach to turn two. Perez didn’t flinch. All it took was the slightest touch of Perez’s front right tire with Sainz’s rear left tire to send both drivers quite violently into the wall, triggering a Virtual Safety Car with one lap remaining. Russell and Norris inherited P3 and P4, respectively, and Verstappen would emerge from the pits to claim P5 with no shot at a fastest lap.
In the final analysis, Perez and Sainz came together in a racing incident. I’d argue Perez was more at fault simply because he had a better view. Sainz was ahead by half a car length and already skirting the wall. It was natural for him to want to move left. My sense is that Perez was frustrated by attempting to snatch P2 from Leclerc only to end up in P4 behind Sainz. It was embarrassing. So he appeared to be driving with high levels of emotion—incidentally, something you’ll never see from Piastri because he’s a cold-blooded killer. Sainz was also to blame, but it was within Perez’s ability and interest to avoid the contact, regardless of who was at fault, and he didn’t.
As a result of Perez’s crash, Norris’ recovery, Piastri’s victory and Verstappen’s mediocre P5 finish, McLaren now lead the WCC by 20 points. And Norris closed the gap to Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship by a few points to 59.
The second stop on this Asian double-header is another famous street circuit in Singapore (September 20-22), widely considered the most physically demanding race of the season due to its heat, humidity and track design. It’s also a night race under the lights. If past is prelude, we’ll see Red Bull struggle even more than usual, as this was the only race the team conceded in 2023. We might even see Williams challenging the Red Bulls if its pace continues.
Singapore will likely be another close battle between McLaren and Ferrari. Of the four drivers, the smart money is on the Australian assassin. But what if Piastri and Norris lock out the front row with Piastri on pole? What we’d likely see then is another Hungary scenario, where Norris undercuts Piastri but doesn’t give the place back this time. Which conveniently avoids any on-track conflict. With Ferrari in the fight, though, it may not make sense to gamble with team order shenanigans.
