McLaren consider making Piastri number one – Prior to the Formula One summer break the driver’s world championship was a foregone conclusion, it would be a McLaren driver taking the title for the first time since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Yet now the Woking based team are concerned Max Verstappen and Red Bull are once again a real threat.
Verstappen is 94 points behind Piastri and to win the title would be the biggest turnaround in F1 history. Yet the world champion has proven in 2023 when the Red Bull car is right, he has won ten costive races. With eight remaining Grand Prix and three Sprints to boot, the maths is complicated but a record fifth consecutive title is more than just theoretically possible and McLaren have expressed their concern this weekend in Baku.
When asked about the threat from Verstappen, McLaren boss Andrea Stella admitted there could come the time where they decide one of their drivers – at present Oscar Piastri – may be made the number one by the team.
McLaren boss admits thinking about a number one driver
“We will observe race by race and if at some stage it looks obvious that a call needs to be made, obvious to everyone, including both drivers, then we may make this call,” he explained. “But this is very, very far at the moment, and far also from our way of thinking right now.”
Clearly the fact Mclaren are considering the Verstappen threat means it is not “very far” from their thinking as he said, but may be some way away before the call needs to be made. Having dominated the season to date, McLaren have had a nightmare of a weekend in Azerbaijan.
In practice one Piastri suffered a power unit issue which looked like it would set him on the back foot for the rest of the weekend. Yet fortunately a lengthy barrier repair following a faulty kerb meant the Australian’s woes were mitigated reducing his track time loss to the field to a matter of minutes.
Baku: Hamilton furious at Ferrari as strategy blunder leaves him only P12
Messy Baku weekend for McLaren
In practice two it was Norris who was to lose learning time after putting his car into the barrier with around half the session remaining. The British driver returned to the top of the time sheets in final practice but Verstappen was ominously closing in behind and Piastri was again slower than his team mate.
Come qualifying, the anticipation was high with six drivers in the shout for pole position. Yet the session was one of the most attritional ever since in the history of the sport, with a record six red flags. A crash by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc meant just three drivers had times on the board as the rest were forced to abandon their laps following a red flag.
At the restart it was Piastri who made only his second mistake of the season putting his McLaren into the barrier at turn three. This created a real moment of opportunity for Lando Norris to claim pole and make inroads into his team mates 31 point lead in the the drivers’ title race.
Norris decision strange
Yet despite light rain having peppered the circuit during the clean up operation, McLaren bizarrely decided to send Norris out first which had the effect of cleaning up any damp patches for the remaining eight cars left in the top ten shoot out. The lap was broadcast in full from Lando’s onboard and it was clear after just four corners he was slithering around, suffering a distinct lap of grip.
His time was good enough for just P7, meanwhile Verstappen the master put in a lap which was nigh on half a second quicker than the impressive Carlos Sainz. Red Bull brought a new floor to Monza with the result Verstappen looked to be back to his best, destroying the field by almost 20 seconds to claim the win in front of the tifosi.
Many of the F1 analysts called the victory a result of the temple of speed being an outlier circuit, where teams design specific aero packages which are deigned for the quickest track on the calendar. Yet come Friday in Baku practice, the Red Bull garage were bullish about a turnaround they found in the car in Italy and come Saturday afternoon their positivity was proven correct.
Stella wary of Red Bull turnaround
Max took his first pole in Baku and is set to win the Grand Prix on Sunday, making it two races in a row where he will take the top step on the podium. The momentum shift may prove significant despite the points deficit, given the Dutch driver is a generational talent not seen since maybe Ayrton Senna.
McLaren boss Stella recognises the Red Bull turnaround has once again made Verstappen “a very serious contender” and the Woking based team are closely monitoring every detail they can find abut their Red Bull rivals. “They have taken a new floor in Monza, and they might be setting up their car slightly differently,” he told assembled media.
“Now Verstappen is talking about grounding much more than he was doing before, so they might have unlocked performance. I would not be surprised at all that Red Bull may continue the streak that they have started – because pole position in Monza, victory, and now pole position here.
Red Bull “very serious contender”
“Red Bull are a very serious contender to win races and a very serious contender for the drivers’ championship.”
Stella is not a man who creates drama, his post session interviews are measured beyond compare. Yet this startling admission means McLaren, by his own admission will face a decision in the very near future and giver Piastri’s significant advantage it would be he who is made the number one driver.
The mathematics is complicated, but by now means a mere theoretical exercise. Another bad day in Baku on Sunday for the McLaren pair and a win for Verstappen could yet set up the most incredible come back story in the history of Formula One and his sixth pole of the year in Baku sees him now the fastest man on Saturday so far in 2025.
BAKU: Haas driver disqualified
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend took another dramatic turn for Esteban Ocon and the Haas team. Following a disappointing qualifying session in which the French driver finished 18th, the stewards delivered a hammer blow. Hours after Saturday’s time trial had ended, Ocon was disqualified from the results for breaching the Technical Regulations, meaning he had to start Sunday’s race from the pit lane.
The offence was no minor clerical issue or procedural slip-up. It related to the most scrutinised area of car design in modern Formula One: the aerodynamics. More specifically, it related to the rear wing. FIA inspectors found that Ocon’s car was in violation of Article 3.15.17 of the Technical Regulations, which deals with what has become known as the “flexi-wing rule”. The Haas rear wing was found to exceed the permitted deflection limits under load, an offence that the governing body has been particularly strict about policing this season….. READ MORE
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