Five big conclusions from F1 2025’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix could be remembered for being a defining moment in the 2025 F1 season and title fight, for several reasons.

Here are five things we learned from a dramatic weekend in Baku…

You can never discount Max Verstappen

Rule number one in F1; never rule Max Verstappen out.

After the last two rounds, that should now be clear as day. Verstappen produced two outstanding weekends at Monza and Baku and has come away with back-to-back victories - an unlikely prospect just a matter of weeks ago.

Much of Verstappen’s hard work in Baku was done on Saturday when he secured pole position while his main rivals tripped up, before turning in a dominant drive on Sunday to fire a warning shot at McLaren that this year’s title battle isn’t over just yet. 

With Red Bull making a breakthrough with their car, Verstappen is now delivering the kind of results we had grown accustomed to seeing from him in recent years.

It remains to be seen whether Red Bull can keep up this resurgent form at the variety of circuits coming up, but Verstappen is very much a factor in this championship fight.

Even if he may be too far back to make it a three-way tussle - after all, this is McLaren’s title to lose - the four-time world champion will certainly have a role in determining the final outcome.

Oscar Piastri isn’t immune to mistakes

It turns out that Oscar Piastri is human after all.

After a near-flawless 2025 campaign, Piastri had a really sloppy showing in Azerbaijan with quite possibly his worst weekend-performance of his F1 career so far.

It was certainly the biggest error we have seen from Piastri since he slewed off the track in wet conditions at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Following Melbourne, Piastri has exuded calm and consistency and not put a foot wrong. That was until we got to Baku, where Piastri crashed out of qualifying and the race with an unusually out-of-character display.

Is this the first sign of the pressure of a title fight starting to get to him?

After a two-week break to digest and move on from an error-strewn weekend, how Piastri responds at the next race in Singapore will be crucial.

There is no reason for panic stations to set in just yet, with Piastri fortunate to come away with a fairly comfortable 25-point championship lead despite dropping the ball, largely thanks to his McLaren teammate and nearest rival Lando Norris missing an opportunity to fully capitalise.

The Australian needs to make sure Baku was a one-off because with seven races to go, he can’t afford a repeat.

Carlos Sainz rewarded for persistence 

To say it hasn’t been the easiest of adaptations for Carlos Sainz would be an understatement.

Prior to Baku, Sainz had scored just 16 points and largely been stuck in the shadow of teammate Alex Albon. For reasons both within and beyond his control, it has been a challenging debut campaign with Williams for Sainz.

But the Spaniard enjoyed a much-needed reward in Baku with a stunning first podium with Williams, the groundwork for which was laid with a superb qualifying lap to claim a surprise P2 on the grid.

Sainz made his podium target a reality with a faultless and gritty drive that underlined both his tough character and desire to keep working hard.

This result understandably meant a lot to Sainz and vindicated his decision to join Williams after being unfortunate to be forced to give up his Ferrari seat at the end of 2024 for Lewis Hamilton.

Who would have thought at the start of the year that Sainz would have beaten Hamilton to the podium this season.

Ferrari have serious work to do 

Underwhelming weekends are becoming an unwelcome trend for Ferrari in 2025.

At a venue Ferrari had taken the last four pole positions, a combination of operational errors and lack of performance when it mattered most led to Charles Leclerc and Hamilton ending up a disappointing 10th and 12th on the grid in Baku.

Things didn’t get much better in the race, with Hamilton taking eighth, one place ahead of Leclerc. It was a much stronger weekend for Hamilton, but this was overshadowed by Ferrari’s overall lack of competitiveness, as well as a botched team order which further highlighted improvements that are needed.

Having made a positive start to the weekend that saw Hamilton lead a Scuderia 1-2 in Friday practice, it was execution that ultimately let Ferrari down.

Ferrari are fast running out of opportunities to end a so-far winless campaign, while they have now dropped behind Mercedes in the fight for second place in the constructors’ championship.

Azerbaijan once again showed that Ferrari need better qualifying performance, while exposing other glaring and concerning flaws.

Yuki Tsunoda’s breakthrough was overshadowed

Arguably, the performance of the weekend came from Liam Lawson. While the Kiwi was unable to convert his stunning P3 on the grid into a podium finish, he produced an exceptional drive to bag his best result in F1 with fifth.

Despite not having the aid of DRS, Lawson managed to keep the faster cars of Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull, Norris’s McLaren and both Ferraris behind him with a drive that raised eyebrows in the paddock.

In doing so, Lawson overshadowed a personal breakthrough for Tsunoda, who qualified and finished sixth to take his best result since joining Red Bull. Had Tsunoda beaten Lawson, there would have been more cause for celebration for the under-pressure Japanese driver. Instead, it is nothing more than a solid result.

Lawson took the deserved plaudits by delivering a clear message to Red Bull that he won’t go down without a fight as he looks to secure his place on the grid next year.

With it looking likely that the second Racing Bulls seat will be a straight shootout between himself and Tsunoda amid reports that Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad will step up to F1 in 2026, this could end up being a defining moment for Lawson.