2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Preview: 5 Big Talking Points Heading into the Weekend

Linus O'Howell
Sep 18
3 min read

McLaren Have an Issue on their Hands

The thing that everyone has been talking about from the fallout of Monza was McLaren’s strategy choice to tell Oscar Piastri to let Lando Norris back through after a slow pit stop originally reversed the positions! Now, whether you’re more of a Lando or an Oscar fan doesn’t really matter, as it’s pretty clear from the response that this was all a bit of a mess! Either way, the gap between the top 2 in the Championship is 31 points, and Piastri will know that he needs to get back ahead of Norris this week in order for things like this to not happen again! However, if McLaren are all about “fairness” between their two drivers, how far could this go, like genuinely?!

Alex Albon is Flying

I’ve praised Alex Albon a lot this season; he was 7th in my Midseason Driver Rankings, but since then, he’s performed even better with a P5 in Zandvoort, followed by a P7 in Monza! Because of that, Alex is now 7th in the Drivers’ Standings, ahead of a Mercedes (which is insane), and he’ll be aiming to reach the 100-point mark come Abu Dhabi! It’s also worth mentioning that Albon’s best result last season was a P7 around the streets of Baku, so he’ll be confident that another strong weekend is incoming!

Charles Leclerc’s Ridiculous Azerbaijan Pole Streak

It’s not been the easiest of 2025’s for Charles Leclerc; he had Championship aspirations heading into this season, but a lack of pace from Ferrari meant that those dreams ended pretty quickly! However, Ferrari haven’t always been the most competitive in recent years either, particularly in 2021 and 2023, and yet Charles has taken Pole in every Azerbaijan Grand Prix Qualifying since that year! Amazingly, that even includes the 2023 Sprint Shootout, but despite that amazing record, Leclerc is still yet to win around the Baku City Circuit! Is that record going to change this weekend? Only time will tell!

Aston Martin’s Diabolical Monza

As far as weekends go, I’m not sure things could’ve gone much worse for Aston Martin in Monza! They’d had a positive run of results in Hungary and Zandvoort, but Monza was a different story, with Fernando Alonso’s suspension breaking (whilst running in the points) whilst Lance Stroll had a terribly slow pitstop which meant he finished last! On top of that, points for Lance were possible, but Aston’s strategy wasn’t on point! In the end, Aston Martin can easily turn things around this weekend, but ultimately, they’re going to need to if they want to stay ahead of Racing Bulls and Kick Sauber in the fight for 6th!

Can Max Verstappen Build Momentum?

After winning 4-straight World Championships, 2025 hasn’t been the year that Max Verstappen would’ve been hoping for, he’s currently 94 points off the Championship lead with just 8 Races left to go! However, Max is coming to Baku following a dominant victory in Monza, so the question is whether he can do it again this time around?! To be honest, that question is more on Red Bull; they need to find consistent performance, but if Verstappen was to win this weekend, maybe he shouldn’t be counted out just yet!