A quiet weekend in terms of numbers on the ground in Azerbaijan – typically a race with lower levels of media and partner demands for the teams – but the complete opposite when it came to on-track action.

How Oscar Piastri dealt with his surprise crash, and what Red Bull does with Max Verstappen‘s team-mate, were just two of the topics that stand out in Baku.

Piastri’s temperament to the fore again

I was expecting to be talking about McLaren winning the constructors’ championship in this week’s column, but at the first time of asking, the chance went begging during a scruffy weekend. It’s so easy to let it slightly cloud the fact that McLaren has been far and away the dominant team this year and deem it a failure not to wrap the title up here, but it’s a formality whenever it happens.

What perhaps isn’t, is who wins the drivers’ title, after Oscar Piastri crashed out and opened the door for both Lando Norris to reduce his lead again – albeit only by six points – and Max Verstappen to make it 35 points gained in two races. But something Piastri did after crashing actually gives me even more belief that he will get the job done.

The Australian’s laid-back appearance has often been cited as a strength, but he has also previously talked about how he is just better at hiding his emotions sometimes, and choosing what he shows.

After the crash, he wore the mistake, and when he was walking out on Sunday evening, I had a brief chat with him about his weekend. Most of it was simply him being polite at being bothered by me, but the bit that stood out was when he reflected on the crash and said: “S**t happens”.

He really gave the demeanour of someone who will not beat themselves up over a rare and uncharacteristic error – his first failure to score of the season – and who truly doesn’t let the lows affect him too much, just as he doesn’t the highs.

I’m not expecting a hangover in Singapore, and for a driver in the midst of a title fight at such an early stage in their F1 career, Piastri inspires real confidence in his ability to move on and produce at the highest level as the pressure increases towards the end of the season.

Guidelines and permanent stewards debate

The last column after Monza highlighted Alex Albon‘s approach to the driving standards guidelines, and how he is unclear on what he can and can’t do when fighting other cars. As it turns out, he’s not the only one…

The discussion continued in Baku after the news between races that Williams had successfully gained a review of Carlos Sainz‘s penalty from Zandvoort, with the two penalty points the Spaniard originally earned for colliding with Liam Lawson being rescinded. Sainz reiterated the point that the guidelines are just that – guidelines – and not rules, and he felt permanent stewards would help create greater consistency.

That was a feeling shared by a number of drivers, as was the fact that plenty say they also follow Albon’s lead and drive to what they believe is fair based on how they’ve been brought up racing, rather than thinking of what the guidelines say. Even Oliver Bearman says he trusts his instincts of what he should or shouldn’t do over the guidelines, despite sitting on the verge of a race ban for amassing 10 penalty points so far.

Bearman kept it clean over the weekend but admitted he would have to back out of certain scenarios for fear of another driver not leaving him space, and that was a sad indictment of both the guidelines and the penalty points system not being fit for purpose, as they discourage the exact sort of wheel-to-wheel battling fans want to see.

What does Red Bull do with its second seat?

Arriving in Baku, there had been a growing attitude within the paddock that Isack Hadjar was a certainty for the second Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen in 2026.

It was something I’ll admit I didn’t have a clear steer on, but was actually hoping was not true, so that Hadjar got another year to keep developing at Racing Bulls before making the step up, given how badly all of the drivers alongside Verstappen have faired over the past 12 months.

The common denominator is not the driver, and it appears Red Bull does have patience with the situation, with a suggestion over the weekend that it wouldn’t be making a firm decision until late October at the earliest, and even then, that there could still be a desire to retain stability in the line-up.