Race Rundown: Azerbaijan & Singapore

Race 17 and 18: Azerbaijan and Singapore

These last two races have been a whirlwind!  Azerbaijan was very disappointing for most McLaren fans and Singapore was a whole celebration.  So let’s run it down.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Baku:

I am going to be honest, last year I had no idea how to pronounce Azerbaijan so this year I could not stop saying it.  The starting positions from this race were… interesting to say the least.  Max was P1, Carlos was P2 and Liam Lawson was P3.  We had Williams and RB in the top three.  

I had a bad feeling from the second the lights went out for this race, mostly because we did not get a “lights out and away we go”.  The bad vibes were confirmed when Oscar Piastri went into the wall lap 1 with a lock up.  He DNF’d.  This resulted in a safety car.

There then was a 5 second penalty for Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri.  Since Piastri DNF’d he will have to serve it in the next race.  

Alex Albon received a 10 second penalty for causing a collision.

Lando Norris had yet another slow pit stop at 4.1 seconds - these mechanics need to take a lesson from the Redbull garage and learn how to do a proper pit stop.

Lando unfortunately got stuck in a DRS train and ended P7. 

The ending podium for Baku was - Max P1, George P2, and Carlos P3.  

This was amazing, Carlos Sainz in a Williams got P3!  This was not expected by anyone and was so surprising and exciting! 

While this race had a terrible outcome for McLaren, Singapore ended with celebration.

Singapore Grand Prix:

This Grand Prix was crucial for the McLaren team.  This was the race to win the Constructor’s Championship.  

This race started with a great start from Lando Norris as he went from fifth to third.  It was during this time that Lando slightly touched Oscar.  The only damage was done to Lando’s front wing and the stewards declared it a racing incident and decided on No Further Investigation.  There was also slight contact between Ollie Bearman and Isack Hadjar during this start.

Back to the contact between Oscar and Lando, I have not deeply analyzed it, but I do believe it was just a racing incident.  Lando was trying to avoid crashing into Max Verstappen, he did not run Oscar off the track, and the only damage done was to his car.  This is when Lando overtook Oscar for third, Oscar on the other hand did not think this was fair and was relaying his sentiments about it over his radio throughout the whole race.  McLaren decided to review it internally within their team after the race.  They have since decided that Lando was at fault and will be facing “minor repercussions” for the contact for the rest of the season.  They did not mention what these repercussions will be, but there are many theories floating around on social media.

The pit stops for McLaren started off well, with a 2.1 second pit stop for Lando, then went downhill with a 5.2 second pit stop for Oscar.  

Also during the race a huge piece of debris flew off one of the Saubers, then Nico Hülkenberg went into the wall.

Lando Norris and Max Verstappen both battled for second but Max Verstappen came out on top in that battle.  The ending line up was George Russell P1, Max Verstappen P2, and Lando Norris P3.

Because Lando Norris was able to secure a place on the podium, McLaren became the 2025 Constructor’s Champions.