Azerbaijan GP Winners and Losers: Oscar Piastri makes statement in jarring Red Bull defeat

It was an enthralling Azerbaijan Grand Prix which gave us a three car, three team battle at the front, faster cars recovering through the field, some impressive performances and high drama right towards the end of the race.

Basically, lots of talking points from across the weekend and so here is a look at our winners and losers from Sunday’s race at Baku.

Winners and losers from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2024

Winners – McLaren

Starting with race winner Oscar Piastri, it was a superb drive from the Aussie – arguably his best so far in F1 – which included a fantastic late braking move to take the lead from Charles Leclerc. A move he made despite his race engineer asking him not to because of fears he may over cook his tyres, but Piastri “completely ignored him the next lap and sent it down the inside.”

That was only part of the job though as he spent the rest of the race holding off the chasing Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez to claim victory. Not bad for a number two driver, as his manager Mark Webber once said.

It’s a win that may well prompt the question of whether he has brought himself into play for the Drivers’ Championship title and if becoming a support act for his teammate over the rest of the season.

However, Piastri is still 32 points behind Lando Norris and 91 behind Max Verstappen . So, mathematically speaking he is in the mix and took a huge chunk of points out of the Dutchman’s lead thanks to his win in Baku – realistically though, it’s a very tall order and it’s still likely, should they find themselves together on track, he will still be called upon to help Norris in his championship challenge. 2025, though, could be a different story and a fascinating one at that.

On Lando Norris, his weekend wasn’t perfect following his Q1 elimination on Saturday which saw him qualify 17th and start 15th after other drivers took penalties.

His race was very much all about damage limitation as a result and limit the damage he did with an excellent drive to eventually take P4 and finish ahead of Max Verstappen. He also played a huge part in Piastri’s win having held Sergio Perez up on the Aussie’s in-lap which enabled him to rejoin the race ahead of the Red Bull. A smart call by the team that was well executed by Norris.

It was only a three-point gain on the championship leader which, if replicated for the rest of the season, is nowhere near enough to mount a serious challenge and naturally there will be some frustration and anger because a win could have been on the table and the Brit qualified in a more representative position. But given how badly things could have been, Norris would have taken that, if offered, before the lights went out on Sunday afternoon.

As a team, though, McLaren were without a doubt the big winners in Baku! For the first time in what seems like an eternity, they have taken the lead in the Constructors’ Championship – the first team other than Red Bull to top that table since they took the lead at the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix.

It has been a long time coming and McLaren have been the favourites for the team’s title for a while – but this is a big moment in that battle. Many will argue that nobody cares about the Constructors’ as it’s the Drivers’ title that carries the prestige, but the teams absolutely do care because, ultimately, that is the championship that pays out the cold, hard cash and, om current form, McLaren look set to get the big bucks come the end of the season. Drinks on Zak Brown!

The key analysis from Baku as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ends

👉 Azerbaijan GP conclusions: Piastri’s title warning, Perez driver coach, keep Bearman in

👉 Azerbaijan GP driver ratings: Perfect Piastri and a big drop for Perez

Loser – Max Verstappen

It was, overall, a pretty miserable weekend for the championship leader.

He was out-qualified by teammate Sergio Perez for the first time this season on Saturday and just never looked like he had the pace to get anywhere near mounting a podium challenge – let alone fight for the win.

Oddly enough, Perez was in the mix for victory and looked almost a certainty for a podium until the closing stages. So, to see Verstappen so far off was jarring.

Despite ending up 5th come the chequered flag, believe it or not, there are a couple of positives for him to take away from Baku. Whilst it won’t have been enjoyable – and certainly wasn’t a good look – to see his title rival breeze past and finish ahead of him despite starting so far back, he did ultimately only drop three points to Norris and so he maintains a healthy lead at the top of the standings.

There were also signs across the weekend that Red Bull’s car changes may have had a positive impact on their pace and that could be vital in Verstappen’s bid to become a four-time World Champion. Of course, it could all be a big coincidence and was simply specific to Baku, but Red Bull will be hoping that’s not the case.

A lot of question marks still remain and, although not his worst result of the season, this one will sting for Verstappen because even with those positives, it was still a crushing defeat and a frustrating race for the Dutchman, and he’ll be hoping his car is better in Singapore than it was in Azerbaijan and, indeed, than it was at Marina Bay 12 months ago.

Winners – Williams

We return to the winners and our second entry this week is Williams – with a special mention for Franco Colapinto.

Firstly though, Alex Albon was excellent in the race as he managed his tyres perfectly during the long first stint and eventually took a P7 finish.

Arguably, it’s not a shock to see him pull off such a strategy as he’s done it before to grab a strong result for the team and when he is given a car capable of taking points, he tends to deliver. It was also impressive how well he drove to keep the much faster Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and, at one point, George Russell at bay for many laps before pitting.

As good as he was though, the attention has very much been on his teammate. He bounced back from his practice crash in style making Q3 on Saturday – where he outqualified Albon – and, eventually, took 8th place in the race – only his second in Formula 1.

Okay, Albon didn’t get his second run in Q3, and he inherited P8 on Sunday thanks to the late crash, but that should take nothing away from what was an excellent performance across the two sessions that really matter. Even if the crash didn’t happen, he likely still would have ended up inside the top 10 which would still have been impressive.

The double points finish moved them ahead of Alpine in the Constructors’ Championship which, according to Albon, was their goal by the end of the season, and although it was only one race and who knows what could happen between now and the end of the year, James Vowles’ decision to swap Logan Sargeant for Colapinto has arguably already been justified, given that the change was made to give the team the best chance of scoring points.

Colapinto grabbed four in Baku alone. Sargeant scored one in just over a season and a half.

Losers – Sainz and Perez

It’s frustrating that both drivers make this list because they had, at worst, good races up to lap 49.

On a track he has always gone well at, Perez looked back on strong form and was the better of the two Red Bull drivers almost all weekend. And although he was beaten by his teammate in qualifying and on race day, Sainz wasn’t a million miles away and, once Leclerc’s tyres fell off the cliff, he had a shot at second place.

However, that all adds to the argument for why they are picks for the losers list. All of that was thrown away in a split second which saw both drivers eliminated from the race. Their hard work undone.

The collision was ultimately deemed a racing incident by the stewards as they did not believe that either driver was wholly or predominantly to blame.

In the case of Sergio Perez, there was an argument that perhaps he should have banked his points given how tough things have been of late and that Sainz should maybe have just tucked in behind Leclerc rather than having a look around the outside of his teammate at Turn 2 which gave him the bad exit and brought Perez into play.

However, that is not in a racing driver’s nature – especially in the heat of battle and when you consider that Leclerc’s rear tyres had gone. So, easier said than done.

Ultimately though, racing incident or not, it’s a shame that both drivers’ races fell apart as a result of a collision that, looking back the next day, looks clumsy and wholly unnecessary.

Winner – Fernando Alonso

The last one on our winners list for Baku is Fernando Alonso, who did what Fernando Alonso often does, and drove that Aston Martin to a very good result – and that would have been the case even before the Sainz/Perez crash.

It was a bit of a lonely race for him, and it did feel as though he almost came out of nowhere. But he managed his race well, always looked on for a points finish and even kept Albon at arm’s length despite the Williams driver’s fresher tyres and pace in the closing stages to take P6, which is a good haul of points and a much needed boost for the Silverstone-based team.

There wasn’t an awful lot more he could have done but everything he needed to do, he did well and was rewarded come the end of the race with his best finish since the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

Loser – Charles Leclerc

The final main pick for the losers list is Charles Leclerc. It feels like an odd choice when you look at the result of the race in isolation because he did finish in second place and picked up some good points. However, that really does not tell the full story.

The reality is that for the fourth year in a row at Baku, he failed to convert pole position into victory – although did get his best result at the circuit if we look at the positive side of it – and, quite frankly, was lucky to hang on to that.

His rear tyres fell off the cliff and he had to fight hard to keep Sergio Perez at bay in the closing stages and it was likely only the collision between Perez and Sainz that allowed him to keep hold of P2. Had they carried on, he may well have ended up in 4th place.

But it’s his racecraft that also plays a huge part in why he is on our Baku losers list. Oscar Piastri’s move to take the lead was bold, ballsy and beautiful.

However, the truth is, Leclerc left the door wide open, and the Aussie threw himself through it and never looked back – well, apart from checking his mirrors to defend, obviously.

There is a good chance that the McLaren’s pace on the Hard tyre would have meant Piastri took the win anyway, but the task should have been made so much harder than it was. It’s also possible that, had Leclerc kept the lead, he’d have had the clear air to manage pace and tyres and so his rears may have survived – we’ll never know, of course.

Honourable L Mention – Nico Hulkenberg

There are a couple of drivers – one winner and one loser – that deserve an honourable mention.

Nico Hulkenberg makes our losers list because of whatever weirdness was going on at the end of the race. He hadn’t driven badly and looked like he was on for a point. However, as he passed Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz who were in the wall, he was caught out by how quickly the green flag was flown and was caught out by Lewis Hamilton and Ollie Bearman which resulted in the German dropping out of the points paying positions. A costly error from the Haas driver.

Honourable W Mention – Ollie Bearman

And as it turns out, our honourable winner mention is another Haas driver – yes, Ollie Bearman. It was a really good first full weekend for Bearman who, like Colapinto, bounced back well from a frustrating practice crash.

He out-qualified Hulkenberg on Saturday and, although fortunate to pinch a point thanks to his teammate’s momentary lapse, he didn’t make that same mistake and capitalised on it to make it two F1 starts, and two F1 points finishes.

It was also a lot of fun watching his fight with Lewis Hamilton. We often see drivers in the midfield and further back effectively wave faster cars by because that’s not who they are really racing. So, it was nice to see Bearman willing to defend hard but also fair.

Oh, and a super quick nod as well to George Russell who drove a well-managed race to put himself into the top five and, as it turned out, into a position to capitalise on the crash ahead to inherit a podium finish.

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