Azerbaijan Grand Prix Recap & Reactions
Pre race weekend thought:
Still mentally and emotionally recovering from Monza I need everyone to just not use their team radio this weekend
Track Specs
Circuit Length: 6.003 km (3.73 mi)
51 laps
2 DRS Zones
20 corners
Tyre strategy
Mediums | Pit window laps 16 - lap 22 | hards
Hards | pit window laps 29 - lap 35 | mediums
It’s been a while since I have done one of these blogs. The origin of this very website. It hit me this week after my little break down in the last blog how few races there are left in the season. What is a girl to do after the first week of December? Deal only with the NFL? Ugh. I need a balance of some sort with another sport. Please leave me suggestions.
Though I was thinking about how different the 2026 season is going to be from what we understand of F1 now. There are going to be so many differences in the car specs & our understanding of how the cars work that I am legitimately going to have to spend the off season studying. What other sport has you needing to spend its little time off, STUDYING. I never want a man to come up to me and tell me my love of this sport is performative. Because what do you mean? Voluntarily being a McLaren fan this season? Like, that team is medium key on fire? IM OUT HERE STUDYING CAR SPECS AND REGULATIONS?! MADE MY ENTIRE MASTERS RESEARCH PROJECT ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THIS SPORT?! get out of my face immediately before I alter the trajectory of your life in a negative way. Maybe, just maybe, I will have to start the fangirlformula podcast for the 2026 season………
Media Day
Thursday’s of the race week are, for those who don’t know, media day. First time we are getting our drivers on the paddock for interviews and team meetings before practices start on Friday. Normally, it results in a few soundbites that the media fixates on for the rest of the weekend or some entertaining quotes for fans to discuss online. Though, Thursday did provide a different type of entertainment. We were given the gift of a Paddock Cat. Baku is a street race, which means the track is built by defining the literal city streets with barriers. So, the fact it’s taken this long for a stray animal to wander onto the paddock is actually kind of shocking. The content managers of each of our teams were ON IT. Immediately, we were served grid posts and photoshoots of this cat. Though, the meeting I really wanted was between Max Verstappen, our resident cat king, and our new Baku mascot. Red Bull Racing - as I am writing this at 11:50 am on Thursday morning we still do not have this content. You have until the end of the day to fix it.
Qualifying
Turn 15 is going to be a problem
Albon red flag - damage to the front left wing skimming the wall
At the time of the red flag - Oscar and Kimi don’t have lap times and really if they don’t make it through (don’t see why they wouldn’t) this is MAJOR
Another red flag !
Guys. What the heck is happening
Out in Q1
20. Albon
19. Gasly
18. Ocon
17. Hulkenberg
16. Colapinto
So, I ended up recorded the rest of the qualifying session because I had to leave the comfort of my home & couldn’t look at my phone. I chose to finish watching this because I felt that I was going to be missing out on so much for the blog so please do not ever question my love for this blog & this sport. Even though I saw the results I still had no idea how the heck we ended up here.
Q2
Ollie immediately into the wall for a red flag
This is going to be a massacre tomorrow isnt it
Charles lets at least get a lap in before we throw it immediately into the wall
Ferrari needs to learn time management skills
Out in Q2
15. Ollie
14. Stroll
13. Bortoleto
12. Hamilton
11. Alonso
Q3
I had recorded this and why oh why does it say there is still an hour on the recording and we are just about to start Q3
if it starts raining ill literally freak out
that george russell reverse is actually just a different font of that meme video of him at the drivers parade
Charles is in the wall at 15. did I not tell you. DID I NOT TELL YOU. red flag!
OSCAR INTO THE WALL?! Baku. please for the love of all that is good STOP RED FLAGGING
6 RED FLAGS?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?
only carlos and the VCARBS have times set right now and I cant help but laugh
less than a minute please everyone just let us at least get times on the board
if i told everyone the results of this qualifying on Thursday they would laugh in my face
top 10
max
carlos
liam
george
kimi
yuki
lando
isack
oscar
charles
Going into tomorrow I am terrified for the energy going into turn 1? The top 3 we have are so unhinged and I swear we may not even make it to turn 3 before there is a red flag. I actually really enjoy street circuits & maybe thats controversial (except Vegas please do not get it twisted). Baku is actually a street track that allows for overtaking and is so technical with the driving (in my opinion shut up if you disagree I simply do not care), mainly because if not you’re eating the wall. Guys. Typing this out makes me so excited & nervous for the morning.
Live Race Reactions
what the heck happened to oscar
OSCAR INTO THE WALL?!?! WHAT IS GOING ON
so when I said we needed to flag the session in lap 1 I didn’t mean for you to cause it Oscar
he jumped the start?! Oscar is having the most unOscar like weekend
I need everyone to know Im thinking of the identity theft episode of spongebob where he says “I lost something once”
safety car restarts are terrifying
so can Lando WAKE UP
Isack is going to do everything in his power to defend against Lewis as long as possible because thats his dream fr
another yellow flag?! oh immediately green thank god
heres the thing: battling against either Ferrari is terrifying because they simply have nothing to lose and both will fight you until you’re in the wall
guys I love the aerial views down the straights they bring me so much joy
rain???? absolutely not I swear on all that is good it better not
kimi behind liam should be a scary image for everyone right now
whenever we get a lot of action so early then it gets very quiet, I become very nervous because it’s almost like we are due for a dose of chaos
oscar still not in the pits and sitting watching the broadcast on his phone is very oscar
FRANCO?!?!
so if we are starting to pit we clearly aren’t worried about the rain anymore right???
go kimi go kimi go kimi go kimi
mclaren will need to perform a flawless, world record breaking pitstop if they want to get out ahead of charles
See rain is still incoming no one go into the pits yet
VCARB radio message to Isack is the only type of messages that I want to hear moving forward
wait, did Oscar ever make it back to the pit wall or is he still just hanging out in his little alcove spot
you need to give lando time to warm up the tyres for the overtakes
I need charles to put on an overtake masterclass right now
a slow pit stop????! honestly.
I need Lando to put on an overtake masterclass right now
“leave it to me please” - Smooth Operator milling over doing something so drastic
i need someone to do something now (lap 45)
Literally. Whatever.
Lando if you are going to do something, now is the time
Looking to Singapore
The race for the WDC is starting to get serious. Yes, it was always serious but now you can actually feel it in every session. There is very little margin of error for these McLaren drivers, especially with Max showing up each weekend recently, remembering who he is & chipping away their points. Singapore does offer a better setting though for a Constructors Championship win for McLaren, so their pit crew needs to spend this down time practicing their pit stops because the last 2 races they have been causing problems. It’s a physically demanding race so really going into it, everyone needs to be on their best behavior & mentally strong because it’s very unforgiving. While this weekend wasn’t what anyone had in mind - it was very entertaining from start to finish.
Post race weekend thought:
I need to go back to bed
Hopefully everyone enjoyed have the race recap & reaction blogs back. I am so glad I picked a great weekend to do it, but if any F1 teams are reading this. Let’s not do this again.
Talk soon.
