{"id":913151,"date":"2026-09-28T19:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T19:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/913151\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T19:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T19:08:11","slug":"f1-in-azerbaijan-that-was-almost-a-close-run-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/913151\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 in Azerbaijan: That was almost a close-run thing"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n \"BAKU,
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Isack Hadjar (left) is Max Verstappen\u2019s (right) best teammate in quite some time.<\/p>\n

\n Credit:
\n Mark Thompson\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n

\n Isack Hadjar (left) is Max Verstappen\u2019s (right) best teammate in quite some time.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/p>\n

Mark Thompson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

How fast?<\/p>\n

McLaren had a very hard weekend. The McLaren is hamstrung by shorter gearing that, while aiding acceleration in slow corners, blunts its top speed relative to rivals. In the old days, teams would simply bring appropriate sets of gears to each track, but in 2026 you have to declare all eight ratios (plus the final drive) before the start of the year, with only one change allowed all season. Consequently, the McLaren was the second-slowest car in a straight line<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking of straight-line speeds, they were a lot lower down that massive straight than the cars last year. As we have discussed ad nauseam, the 2026 hybrid power units can only store enough energy in their batteries for around 11\u201312 seconds of full power from the electric motor that provides almost half the cars\u2019 1,005 hp (750 kW) power output. When this battery runs out, it\u2019s just down to the V6 until there\u2019s another chance to recharge it.<\/p>\n

Notably, F1 did not show us any speed or battery state-of-charge information for any of the cars while they were on the main straight. Previously, F1\u2019s president and CEO, Stefano Domenicali,\u00a0had told The Race<\/a> that \u201cno one is interested in how you drive your car\u201d and that \u201cthe people are interested if you\u2019re overtaking or not,\u201d but that\u2019s an inconsistent stance when those on-screen displays showing state of charge and the car\u2019s speed are being used for other sections of the track.<\/p>\n

McLaren\u2019s Oscar Piastri actually looked set for a good day, something the Australian driver could use. He started third and passed Leclerc in the opening laps to take second, where he stayed until lap 35 and a safety car restart, when he got jumped by Verstappen. In the next lap, being harassed by Hadjar into turn 1, Piastri unlocked both front tires under braking and had to take to the escape road. It was an uncharacteristic mistake and one that took him far out of the 10 point paying positions; he finished in 14th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isack Hadjar (left) is Max Verstappen\u2019s (right) best teammate in quite some time. Credit: Mark Thompson\/Getty Images Isack…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-913151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}