Post-Baku:
Baku did what Baku always does: deliver chaos. The qualifying session dragged on forever with crash after crash, and by the time the lights went out on Sunday it felt like everyone was bracing for the next curveball. And it delivered quickly, with Oscar Piastri crashing out on the very first lap — a gut punch for the driver who’s looked untouchable all year. The race only spiraled from there, with mixed strategies and a podium no one could have predicted on Thursday morning.
Carlos Sainz Delivers for Williams
Carlos Sainz’s podium will probably be the lasting image from this weekend. Williams haven’t exactly been in the mix for top-three finishes this season, yet Baku gave them the chance and Sainz did everything right to take it. His strength has always been extracting the maximum from whatever’s underneath him, and that’s exactly what this was: clean execution, good timing, and ruthless efficiency when others slipped. It wasn’t flashy, but it didn’t need to be — Williams took a swing and Sainz turned it into silverware.
Hopefully this means we're starting to see Carlos deliver as he gets fully embedded with the team and comfortable with the style of the car. He's an amazingly hard-worker, but once he finds a groove, expect him to keep delivering. Whereas Alex Albon occasionally makes self-inflicted mistakes when the car has potential, look for Carlos to be the one that delivers on the promise. Hopefully next year Williams will have the car that they both can regularly deliver with, because it's such a fun team to cheer for and we all are happy to celebrate their success. They have three of the most likeable people on the grid heading the team and we've already seen the culture and leadership shift like we did when the vibe turned positive for McLaren. For me it just has that similar feel.
McLaren Stumble Hard
For McLaren, it was a reality check. Piastri’s first-lap crash was the kind of thing no one expected to see in this last stretch of the season, and it left him on the sidelines with nothing but frustration to show for it (laid back in a lawn chair watching the coverage on his phone). Up to now, he’s carried himself like the inevitable future champion, but Baku knocked that aura back a step. For the first time, he looked human — and vulnerable. The whole weekend overall just seemed like he never really got it together. I have faith he'll recover as he has pretty much every time in the past and be ready to deliver in Singapore.
Lando Norris didn’t fare much better. Starting further down the order as well, he never looked like a threat to claw back into the fight. The car just didn’t hook up in these conditions, and Norris found himself stuck in the midfield traffic with nowhere to go. Between the long straights and the stop-start rhythm of the track, McLaren simply didn’t have the weapons this time. If there’s such a thing as a bogey track for them in this era, Baku might be truly be it, but just in general this weekend was a wake-up call that this championship (at least driver's) isn't over yet.
Max Back in the Fight
Then there’s Max Verstappen. A few weeks ago, the narrative was simple: McLaren had sprinted out to a commanding position, and Max was staring down a lost season. Two races later, that’s been flipped. Max has found something with Laurent Mekies — the setups, the strategy calls, the trust to let him do his thing when the opportunity presents itself. The car isn’t the best everywhere, but it’s good enough in the right moments, and that’s all Max needs. Being able to work with the team to dictate what he needs and have the engineers willing to try it without hesitation hasn't steered them wrong yet.
Back-to-back wins now put him squarely back in the championship conversation, and you can feel the psychological shift is only a race away. McLaren aren’t looking invincible anymore, and Max knows how to smell blood. If the papaya cars falter again, this could turn into a knife fight to the end.
Speaking of bogey tracks, Max's might be Singapore, but fresh off his GT victory at the Nurburgring, he'll be ready to check another race off his career list.
George Russell: Mercedes’ Steady Anchor
George Russell deserves a mention too. While the spotlight swings between McLaren’s wobble and Max’s resurgence, George continues to stack quiet but effective weekends. Mercedes aren’t yet capable of winning on outright pace, but George has been there to pick up solid points every time. It’s consistency that keeps a team relevant, and Russell is providing it. At this point, his long-term future with Mercedes feels less like a question and more like the obvious answer.
The Stretch Run
Seven races left. Piastri finally has a dent in his armor. Lando hasn't shown the instinct to turn bad weekends into damage-limiting recoveries of late. Max has momentum, a sharp setup, and all the confidence that comes with it.
Baku stripped away the idea that this season was already decided. The championship fight is alive again, and suddenly every lap and every decision matters. The Singapore GP is one of my favorites to watch and I'm sure I'm not the only one hoping for another banger of a weekend!
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