Formula 1 can try all the new formats it likes, but there’s no rule tweak that’s likely to be enough to stop Red Bull Racing from charging to victory this season.
Charles Leclerc gave us hope with his two qualifying-topping finishes this weekend and a his sizzling start in the sprint to hold off Sergio Pérez.
George Russell gave us a little more when he barged past Max Verstappen to try to pinch third place, infuriating the Dutchman and damaging his car.
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But just as cream rises to the top, Pérez inevitably found a way past Leclerc with an easy slipstream move that rocketed him to victory.
It’s important to remember the context of the season we’re experiencing when deciding whether the sprint format and this weekend’s tweaks are working. There’s no set of rules that will instantly close the gaps between teams. Under this format we get more single-lap showdowns and more standings starts, but there’s still one car that does all of that stuff better than the rest.
But all the same there was plenty of intrigue in the sprint race both on and off track — and even a tiny glimmer of hope that Ferrari might not be as far off the pace as feared earlier this season.
VERSTAPPEN’S SALTY GIBE AFTER RUSSELL CRASH
As has tended to be the case, F1’s sprint events tend to require only one key flashpoint to be noteworthy, and thankfully we got one such moment on the first lap between Verstappen and Russell.
Verstappen started from third on the grid alongside Russell in fourth, giving the Briton a clear shot to the inside line for the first three corners, all left-handers.
Russell exploited that advantage by claiming the first three apexes to relieve Verstappen of third place, at least momentarily.
But it wasn’t an absolutely clean sequence of moves.
Heading into Turn 2, Russell suffered a minor lockup that put him slightly wide on exit. His front-right tyre clobbered Verstappen’s left sidepod, ripping a chunk out of it and causing some other damage.
Verstappen then kissed the wall exiting Turn 3 of his own accord, which sealed the deal.
Despite getting the place back after the safety car restart, the Dutchman was furious and sought out the Mercedes driver for a brief argument in pit lane, which ended with him calling him a
“It’s not purposeful, mate,” Russell said. “I’ve got no grip. I’m just locking up.”
It wasn’t enough to quell Mad Max — Verstappen called him a “d***head” as he walked away — who vented to Sky Sports that he thought Russell needed more perspective.
“I mean it’s a bit of common sense,” he said. “I think you just have to picture yourself as well — I mean, [Mercedes] are off the pace, and to risk that much on lap 1 I think it’s not very rewarding anyway because I will get him anyway in the next few laps.
“The potential to damage your car as well, not only my car — of course I had a hole in my sidepod, but he could also get a puncture and then his race is over as well.”
But saltier still was the suggestion that Russell, a multiple junior champion, F1 race winner and in his fifth season in the premier class, lacked the racing maturity to understand his mistake.
“I would [have tried] to fight but not run into someone, because that’s not what you want to do — but that’s something maybe you also learn over time,” Verstappen said.
“I mean, of course I had my moments as well when I just started in Formula 1 where you make some silly, mistakes or lockup or potential damage. Maybe it’s just part of the learning curve.”
Russell, for his part, wasn’t backing down.
“His position was already lost,” he said. “Ever since eight years old in go karting, if you’re on the inside at the apex of a corner, it’s your corner, and if a driver is trying to resist a position on the outside, they’re taking a huge risk.
“On lap 1 on a street circuit, I was really quite shocked. He was trying to hold the position, but equally I’m here to fight. I’m here to win. I’m not just going to wave him by because he’s Max Verstappen in a Red Bull.”
LECLERC’S FEARS CONFIRMED — BUT WITH SOME SILVER LINING
It’s not something you’d normally say about a driver who lost pole and only just clung onto second, but Leclerc’s podium finish in Azerbaijan was positive in an underrated way.
Despite taking double pole positions this weekend, few people gave him a chance of converting to victory in either the sprint or the grand prix — including Leclerc himself — considering Ferrari’s woeful race pace so far this season.
And so it proved, with Leclerc ultimately no match for Pérez once the sprint got into its rhythm, after which the Mexican powered to a comfortable victory.
But he did manage to hold off Verstappen’s attempt to make it a Red Bull Racing one-two, and that’s progress.
“It confirms a little bit what we thought,” Leclerc said. “The Red Bulls still had an upper hand in the race.
“We’re still not where we want to be. If winning’s not possible, we need to take maximum points, and today there wasn’t anything more.”
Sure, Verstappen was carrying some significant bodywork and likely floor damage that undoubtedly slowed him down, and it’s true too that Ferrari was still suffering poor tyre wear, but the SF-23 of only a few rounds ago would’ve been easy pickings even for this limping Bull.
In Baku, however, it was obviously the clear second-fastest car and perhaps had an outside chance of victory had something unusual happened.
So there was a second confirmation in this result — that Ferrari really has developed a deeper understanding of its car. That’s a massive positive.
“We again must not forget how far we were behind in race pace two races ago,” Leclerc said. “We did a step forward.
“We’ll try to go for the win tomorrow even through the Red Bull seems a bit quicker.”
And in Azerbaijan, sometimes you need to be only thereabouts for victory to come to you.
SPRINT SUCCESS? ‘SCRAP THE WHOLE THING’
So now that we’ve got the sprint part of the weekend out of the way, how’s it gone, and how’s it been received?
For the most part the tweaked format has run as expected. The sprint qualifying shootout was an upgrade on the meaningless practice session that used to take place on Saturday morning, and its condensed segmentation gave it at least some minor differentiation with Friday qualifying. There’s a general consensus, however, that it could be made shorter still given drivers can use only one set of tyres for each segment.
And just as we saw some teams punished on Friday for being insufficiently prepared for qualifying, the all-action Saturday bit some drivers hard, in particular Logan Sargeant, whose big crash in the morning had him skip the sprint for repairs.
Esteban Ocon has also been required to start from pit lane in the sprint and the grand prix following a suspension change after the shootout, a quirk of the rules given parc fermé conditions start on Friday night.
That’s sort of the goal. Formula 1 wants as many sessions as possible to count for something, but higher rewards bring higher risks.
So in a general sense the trial has been successful enough. But don’t expect that to have convinced everyone.
“Just scrap the whole thing,” Verstappen said. “I think it’s just important to go back to what we have and make sure that every team can fight for a win. That’s what we have to try and aim for and try to implement
“All this kind of artificial excitement — I would say I got bored through today’s qualifying, to be honest.
“I like to have one particular qualifying where you just put everything in it, and that was yesterday, which of course I enjoy. And then I have to do it again today — ‘My god, another qualifying!’. I just don’t really enjoy that.”
Verstappen said he thought the sprint was a cheap way to give the impression of more excitement without fundamentally improving the sport.
“It’s not proper racing, more gambling,” he said. “I like racing, I’m a pure racer.
“I think this is more for the show, and of course it is important to have entertainment, but I think if all the cars are closer, you create anyway better entertainment than trying to do it like this.
“It feels like you have a football match it’s 3-0 for one team and then suddenly you just say, ‘Let’s reset it to 0-0 and go again’. I find it a bit unnecessary these kinds of things.”
FINES AND FRIENDLY FIRE SOUR MIDFIELD SCRAPS
Some teams might just be cursed in Azerbaijan this year.
We’ve seen already that Alpine has been mired in a combination of bad luck and error this weekend. Pierre Gasly’s car caught fire and the Frenchman promptly crashed it after getting it repaired, and then an exhaust problem prevented him from fully partaking in the sprint shootout.
Teammate Esteban Ocon lost much track time as a precaution against causing his own fire, and as a result he was nowhere near his set-up window by the time qualifying came around. He and the team elected to change set-up against the rules, which means he’s starting the sprint and the race from pit lane.
But AlphaTauri is trying its hardest to ensure it isn’t undone in the bad-luck stakes.
Yuki Tsunoda crashed his car during practice and then Nyck de Vries found the wall during qualifying.
They then crashed with each other in the sprint.
After a spritely early battle, De Vries appeared to cut across Tsunoda’s stern and — so Tsunoda suspects — break his front wing. Unexpectedly lacking front downforce, Tsunoda then understeered clumsily into the fast but easily flat turn 14, tearing off his rear-right wheel.
The Japanese driver limped back to pit lane for a new nose and tyre but was sent back out with an obviously damaged car, for which the team was fined €5000 (A$84000).
“Really frustrating,” is how Tsunoda described it. Enough said.
At least he gets another shot at redemption when he starts eighth for Sunday’s grand prix.
