21 September 2026 17:00 (UTC)
“Our immediate focus is on delivering more performance and fighting for more victories in 2026”
It’s on to Azerbaijan as the Formula 1 season continues, with the Baku City Circuit set to provide a different challenge from Madrid.
With the demanding street layout offering overtaking opportunities, heavy braking zones, and the famous run through the castle, there’s plenty to watch from lights out.
As the Championship battle continues, Lando and Oscar will be looking to make the most of every opportunity in Azerbaijan, with the latter knowing what it takes to win around the street circuit, having done so brilliantly in 2024.
They arrive hoping to build on the encouraging pace shown last time out in Spain, and armed with a fresh set of upgrades. To get you ready for this weekend’s action in The Land of Fire, we’ve covered everything you need to know, including details on the upgrade package, the thoughts of Chief Technical Officer & Chief Designer Rob Marshall, and insight into where the race will be won.
“Baku is a circuit of extremes, combining the longest straight in Formula 1 with some of the slowest corners, so there are significant compromises to manage. Straight Mode gives every team greater scope to run a low-drag car on the straights while retaining downforce through the corners, but the challenge remains the same: bring the best design and setup choices, then execute them cleanly on track.
“We are still learning about these cars at every event, and we have both overperformed and underperformed against our expectations at different races this season. Baku will provide another valuable test of the MCL40 across a very different range of characteristics. Energy management and deployment will be particularly important, as will tyre and brake management with the cars arriving at Turn 1 after the long straight with these areas relatively cold.
“Operationally, there is very little margin for error on a tight street circuit. A small mistake can lead to significant repairs, lost track time and resources being diverted away from performance, so confidence, precision and disciplined execution will be essential throughout the weekend.
“With regulatory continuity into next season and the competition at the front so close, our motivation to keep developing the car remains high. We must balance that with work on next year’s car, but our immediate focus is on delivering more performance and fighting for more victories in 2026, while carrying forward everything we learn. We expect any of the top four teams to be capable of winning in Baku, with the chasing pack also getting closer, and we hope to be firmly in the fight at the front.”
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is one of the most difficult races to predict, with Baku combining long, high-speed straights with some of the slowest and tightest corners on the Formula 1 calendar.
Finding the right balance between straight-line speed and confidence through the technical sections will be crucial to victory.
The most obvious overtaking opportunity comes at the end of the huge main straight. At 2.2km, it provides a significant slipstream before drivers brake heavily for the 90-degree Turn 1. The corner is wide enough for up to three cars to run side-by-side, making it one of the best opportunities to gain a position, especially if somebody is brave enough to make a last-minute dive.
The final corner is also important. A strong exit can give a driver the momentum needed to attack into Turn 1, while Turn 16 plays a similar role at the other end of the lap. Getting the car stopped and turned through the slower corners is only half the challenge - maintaining speed on the following straights can be just as valuable.
Away from the major overtaking zones, Baku demands precision. The castle section is extremely narrow, while the sequence of slow 90-degree corners requires a mix of braking performance and traction. At the other end of the spectrum, the fast sections through Turns 13 and 14 lead into the difficult downhill braking zone at Turn 15.
Ultimately, Baku is about compromise. The driver who can combine low-speed precision with high-speed efficiency, maximise the crucial exits and avoid the unforgiving walls will put themselves in the best position to win.
Lando was unlucky to miss out on victory after taking Pole in Madrid last time out, finishing third due to an unfortunately timed Virtual Safety Car, while Oscar was only able to manage eighth after suffering early damage to his front wing.
However, with the MCL40 once again capable of both Pole and victory, there were several positive signs, including the MCL40's speed through the slower-speed corners and an increasingly competitive operating window. This weekend’s upgrades, targeting aerodynamic performance, will aim to build on these positives.
Heading into Round 15, we’re on 306 points, 52 points off second, while Lando is fourth, five points off fifth, and Oscar is seventh, 25 points off sixth.
24 - 26 SEP
The 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix saw Oscar Piastri take victory from second on the grid with a great overtaking move, while Lando made a great recovery drive from 15th to finish fourth. It was a day where the strategy worked perfectly, excellent teamwork delivered the result and, perhaps most importantly, McLaren went to the top of the Constructors’ Championship for the first time in a decade.
The weekend didn’t get off to a great start, though. The race was a presumptive one-stop, and overtaking was expected to be difficult. The team therefore split the strategies, with Oscar starting on the Medium tyre and Lando pursuing the alternative route with a Hard tyre fitted, planning to go long and use the pace in the MCL38 to gain ground in the middle of the race.
Lando made a good getaway and passed his way up to P11 across the first few laps. He then made bigger gains when the Medium starters pitted between Laps 10-17. He went very deep into the race before his pit stop. Extending his race gave him an opportunity to exploit a Safety Car for a cheap stop, should one appear, but even without that, he was still lapping faster than the midfield and steadily ejecting cars from his pit window. He eventually pitted on Lap 37 of the 51, dropping only from P6 to P7. He emerged from the pits 15 seconds behind Max Verstappen, and then used a substantial tyre delta to catch and pass the Red Bull driver with two laps remaining. He finished P4 after Carlos Sainz and Sergio Pérez collided in the final stages.
Oscar had taken his first F1 victory a few weeks earlier, in Hungary, and was keen to double down. Starting P2, Oscar followed race leader Charles Leclerc through the first stint, without an obvious way through appearing. Of the leading group, Pérez was the first to pit on Lap 11, and Oscar was at risk of the undercut, but Pérez’s stop put him out behind Lando, who was able to cool his own pace through the tight middle sector by just enough to ensure Oscar retained track position after his own stop on Lap 15. Leclerc and Sainz pitted on Laps 16 and 17, and the picture at the front remained unchanged.
That’s when Oscar made the race-defining move. At the end of Lap 19, he got a superb exit from the last corner, hooked up the slipstream, opened the DRS and committed up the inside into Turn 1. It was an all-or-nothing pass: he sailed past Leclerc’s Ferrari and just managed to make the corner, with millimetres to spare from the barriers.
Oscar’s Race Engineer, Tom Stallard, recalls how after the race, the team’s Head of Track Aero Performance, Luigi de Martino Norante, likened Oscar to a bumblebee. “Physic says the bumblebee cannot fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know it flies anyway,” Tom said. “Our overtaking model said Oscar couldn't overtake Leclerc from that distance behind, but Oscar hadn’t seen the overtaking model, so he did it anyway.”
Leclerc fought back in the following laps, but Oscar judged his defensive line perfectly, held off the charge, and was eventually able to pull out from DRS range, eventually coming home 10 seconds clear. “Oscar was caught by a gust of wind in the final corner,” Tom said. “The car skateboarded on the plank, unloading the wheels and costing a lot of time. But Leclerc caught the same gust, with the same outcome and lost the same amount of time, so Oscar was able to stay ahead.
“I was able to stand on the podium and represent this fantastic team. I had an incredible sense of the band of people who created this result, and it was such a proud moment for me.”
The result was a milestone for McLaren. The fourth victory of the season, a 13th consecutive race on the podium but, most crucially, the first time the team had led the Constructors’ Championship since the Australian Grand Prix of 2014. It was a position never relinquished, with team going on to take its first Constructors’ Championship since 1998.
Each race week, we’ll be putting the same question to Lando and Oscar to find out just how similar (or different) they really are. The question could be anything: from their favourite corner on the F1 calendar, to their ultimate pre-race anthem, or even the one food they absolutely refuse to eat on race week.
This week, we asked them which race from their past they would most like to relive.
Oscar: Baku 2024. It was a really exciting, very nerve-wracking win. It probably wouldn’t have felt the same if you knew what the result was going to be, but if I could relive that race, without knowing the result, that would be cool. Crossing the line for that was very special.
Lando: There’s two. Either Miami in 2024 or Abu Dhabi in 2025. That’s a very difficult one. Maybe you can mix the tracks together so I can relive both? If I have to choose, I will say Abu Dhabi last year, but Miami isn’t far off.
