Max back in title fight? Sainz’s ‘best’ podium + McLaren’s Monza ‘hangover’? – 2025 Azerbaijan GP Review with James Hinchcliffe + Laura Winter

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26:19For the first time with Williams, Carlos Sainz will stand on the podium. It's Williams' first podium since 2021 and in a full race since here in 2017. Vamos! Vamos! Best podium in my career, guys. You cannot imagine how this tastes. This is my first smooth operation in Williams.

26:44James Hinchcliffe:And not the last. Carlos, if we could come to you. First podium for Williams. Very well done. Look, what was the key to this result, first of all? Probably just nailing a perfect weekend from quali, practice quali to race. it's what I've been looking for since the beginning of the season just to nail a perfect weekend. I think we had almost a perfect one in Jeddah when we scored maximum points but then the rest of the season has been really up and down with a lot more downs than ups. Very unlucky in some cases. Job not well done in others by me or by other things that was in our control but I always said to the team from the beginning that as long as whenever a first big opportunity of fighting for a podium comes as long as we have everything under control and nothing goes wrong and we prove to everyone what we're doing and we get that podium, I'll be okay.

27:36And it's exactly what ended up happening today. We had our chance starting from P2. Probably if you asked many of us yesterday, we didn't believe the podium was actually achievable with so many fast cars behind. But yeah, it was a very well-executed race. Is that what makes this so special? I mean, you said earlier that this tastes sweeter than your first ever podium in Formula One? Yeah, 100%. This one means even more just because of obviously a year ago when I put my bet on Williams and I said I'm going to this team because I truly believe in this project and I truly believe that this team is on the rise.

28:13I'm very comfortable in this working environment also very comfortable with everyone around me and I've actually been pretty fast all year with a car. I think out of everyone that's changed teams which is not an easy task nowadays I've been very competitive from the first race, very quick, but I didn't have results with me. I didn't have results to prove to myself, the team and everyone that some good things were about to come. But in the end, they did. I think life has taught me many times that this sometimes happens, that you have a run of misfortune, bad luck, bad performances,

28:47James Hinchcliffe:but then suddenly life keeps you back if you keep working hard with something really sweet like this. Carlos Sainz with 3 minutes and 41 seconds of Q3 remaining yesterday Carlos Sainz was on pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix he gets pipped in the end by Max Verstappen of course he would but what a weekend for the guy so thrilled for Williams so thrilled for Carlos Sainz for James Valls his first podium as team principal and I would say that that lap he put in was on merit It wasn't because the rain suddenly fell and no one can improve. No one generally did improve. I think only Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen really put another benchmark in there on that final run in qualifying.

29:29And then in the race, he didn't put a foot wrong. And we've seen, I think it was 11 incidents in 19 races for Carlos so far this season. He's getting used to racing in that midfield pack, whereas before with Ferrari, he's been very much towards P5 and above. And this race was the Carlos of old. I thought he was absolutely superb. I thought he handled the George Russell threat really well, knowing that, yes, I really want a podium here, but I'll take a P3 and I won't risk anything against George knowing he's in a faster Mercedes. It's funny you mentioned that he yesterday was saying, I'm going to get a podium.

30:02It's a podium. Earlier on when I spoke to him, he said a top five, top six would be amazing. And so I think the podium for Williams today was magic. And I just want to give a shout out to Alex Albon. I think it takes a very big man to jump out of your car immediately and run to the podium to go and enjoy it with James Vowles and the team for your rival and the guy next to you. Because Alex is P8 in the Drivers' Championship. He's got a lot more points than Carlos, certainly a lot more coming into this weekend. He's bested him for most of the season on Sundays, on race days. And yet, Sainz is the first one to get that podium.

30:39That must have been a bitter pill to swallow for him to a degree, but he fronted up, bigger man, and he stood under that podium and celebrated with the team. I think that is magic, and it goes to show the kind of culture that James Vowles is cultivating down there as well. Hinch, were you confident that from P2 he'd put it on the podium? No. No, not at all.

31:03Sorry, Carlos.

31:04James Hinchcliffe:Well, I mean, even Carlos said P5, P6. I don't think I'm being too unkind. Again, you cannot give him enough credit for that lap in qualifying and to set him and that team up for a strong result. But with so many cars out of position, so yes, he did that time on merit, but let's not pretend like the Q3 order was what we expected going into Q3. Two Ferraris out of position, two McLarens out of position, and ahead of both Mercedes, you'd be forgiven for thinking he'd lose more than one spot over the course of a 51-lap Grand Prix, especially if something chaotic did happen, safety cars, red flags, whatever, which, again, we were all sort of expecting.

31:51James Hinchcliffe:What is just so impressive about that drive, that result, because it's not just the drive. The team had to call everything correctly. They didn't have a problem in the pits like McLaren did. They called the tire strategy right. They did everything that they needed to do. He did everything he needed to do. It was a function of being able to convert on a good pace day. And that's where that team, that side of the garage at least has struggled. And Carlos and I spoke about this in the interview that went out before the race. They've had pace at a lot of these races where he hasn't scored points. The difference between him and Albon in the Drivers' Championship isn't a true picture of where the pace has really been.

32:30James Hinchcliffe:You look at qualifying, they were even coming in here. So Carlos now actually leads Albon in qualifying. But his side of the garage, whether it was his mistakes, team mistakes, bad luck, which is a part of racing, they hadn't been able to convert on those days when the pace was there. And today, everybody did their job, and it just shows the potential of that team. When you have everything going your way and you all convert, a solid result is possible. You know, you look at the gap, right? Max was, I think, 13 seconds ahead of George at the end. Carlos a further four, five, six back, something like that.

33:04James Hinchcliffe:So when you consider that Max beat the McLarens by 20 seconds alone in Monza, that still puts him in kind of a top five range, even with everybody sort of running where they should have been. So, again, I just think it was a phenomenal result, and it was great to see Carlos get rewarded for the fate that he's put in Williams by going there and believing in that project long term. And, again, for James Vowles and what he's done with that race team over the last however many months. It's incredible, the turnaround there. I could not be a bigger James Fowles fan. I'll be honest. We've had him on almost every show this weekend, and I love hearing him speak.

33:38I love how he speaks about the team, even on the grid, standing there P2 on the front row, even knowing it may not necessarily end up, you know, as high up the field. He was so proud of the team, and, yeah, I think he's amazing. I'm the captain of the James Fowles fan club, president of the James Fowles fan club. Member 001. Oh, I don't think so. I think there's a fair few of us. I think there's a fair few, but I think he's doing a sensational job. Hinchy, we're talking about the faith that Carlos has in the team. The team has faith in him. Interestingly, just before I flew out to Baku, I bumped into Matthew Savage, who's the boss of Doralton in London, just randomly in a pub.

34:19And a quick hello. And his last words to me were, I really hope Carlos has a good weekend in Baku. So it's completely mutual, the respect from driver to team. And you kind of wonder where it goes from here. In the press conference, Carlos said, this might be it. Our next best chance will probably be Vegas. He said, in Qatar, we probably won't even finish in the points. But he's such a realist, isn't he? He is.

34:48James Hinchcliffe:And I think that's why he ended up with Williams in the first place, is he could see realistically the trajectory that that team could have. He knew it wasn't going to be an overnight thing. He didn't want this to be a short-term deal. He was always in it for the long haul and the long-term vision that James had and that he presented to him. Carlos could realistically see coming to fruition. And I love the fact that they're not going to look at this now with sort of false hopes for the rest of the season. This was one of those rare events when you're in a mid-level team, when things go your way.

35:21James Hinchcliffe:I keep using this reference, or I apologize. I've used it a couple times this weekend. But you think back to Brazil last year with Alpine, right? That brilliant double podium. A rare situation presented itself, but they had to execute it, and they did. They weren't thinking that they were then going to go to Abu Dhabi and be a double podium again. I think it's important in this series when you have those opportunities to capitalize on them, but then also not lose sight of where you really stand in the pecking order and make sure when you go to the next race, your expectations are calibrated appropriately because going into a race with expectations that are unrealistic can actually be very damaging for the whole team.

35:57Carlos jumped from P18 in the driver standings, which was so surprising to see a name like Carlos Sainz down there. He jumped up to P12, and he's scored almost as many points today as he has done all season. And it's funny that Carlos is saying next best shot is Vegas, Qatar's a no-go. When we had James Vowles on earlier, Hinch, he was saying, well, Singapore's probably not great, but look, Mexico and Brazil could be brilliant for us. Vegas is going to be great, Qatar and Abu Dhabi will be great so I think James is perhaps, maybe he was buoyed from the podium, still soaking up the champagne we're going to win every race but he certainly sounded optimistic that Williams will be up there let's bring it back to here and to P2 on the podium now, George Russell I mean he's been ill all weekend, didn't hold him back did it?

36:47No it didn't

36:48James Hinchcliffe:you know it was such a difficult qualifying session So it's tough to know what the true pace of that car was, but Kimi was right up there. Neither George nor Kimi made any mistakes, which I think is obviously first and foremost in qualifying. And in the race, it was a very George Russell kind of drive. And it was a very Mercedes kind of, it was very, it was conditions conducive to Mercedes doing well. You know, good brake events, traction zones, and cool temperatures. I love that once again we saw George kind of aiding the strategy calls from the cockpit, even preempting a call from the pit wall saying, I think we should stay on these tires for a bit.

37:26James Hinchcliffe:And his engineer says, I was just about to say the same thing to you. So it was sort of a quintessentially George Russell drive. And to do it when you're under the weather as well and been suffering for the last few days, that much more impressive. I think he would have welcomed safety cars maybe a bit more than anybody else even just to get a little bit of reprieve and catch his breath a bit. And it's got progressively cooler this weekend, which has probably helped them as well. Well, yes, because typically we always say, right, that Mercedes car, it's cold, it's wet, Mercedes will go well. But then we've come to some racetracks this year and it's been cold and wet and that's not happened necessarily.

38:00So I wasn't sure whether the pattern had broken. But this one's maybe confirmed that, you know, they're right back up there. Albeit I'll caveat that with we did not have a normal top 10 order from qualifying. Some of those on merit, but some because of costly mistakes and crashes and into the wall and so on. The likes of Leclerc and Piastri and Norris being out of position from what everyone would have predicted coming into this weekend. So it's difficult to know where their pace measures up, therefore, against the likes of McLaren and Ferrari, who we were expecting more from.

38:33James Hinchcliffe:Does George podium if Saturday isn't a gusty, difficult, six red flagged affair? No, probably not. I think it's kind of the point you're making. It was a good race. It was good conditions for them, but it was, you know, some extenuating circumstances. But he absolutely had to get the job done, and he did. It was a pretty perfect drive. He had that one moment, didn't he, though, with his teammate, with Kimi Antonelli, just the expletive issued over the radio. It was pretty close. He had to back out of it, got behind Tsunoda, had to get the job done back around Tsunoda again, and then hunting down the Clare and ultimately jump sights in the pits and the right calls at the right time when he's not feeling 100%.

39:09It's mighty impressive. and you can only race what's in front of you, what's around you, the situation that you're in and not forgetting that we say, oh, you know, if qualifying had gone a different way, it didn't and George didn't make a single mistake in qualifying. He felt he had more out there but he got a decent lap in to stick at P5 whereas other rivals in potentially faster cars didn't do that. Look, while we're talking Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli was a guy who came into this race under a lot of pressure. Toto Wolff had described his drive in Monza as underwhelming He said on Thursday he agreed with Toto.

39:43But it was absolutely clear that he was a young guy under pressure who needed to get through this weekend without making any big mistakes. The most difficult conditions of the year so far with all the wind, as you were saying earlier, Hinch. And he out-qualifies George Russell. This was a big weekend for Kimi Antonelli, wasn't it? It really was.

40:02James Hinchcliffe:It was a very well-timed to have a good weekend. Of course, he agreed with Toto Wolff on last week's assessment. You're not going to disagree with the boss on something like that. But what was impressive is the fact that he executed when the conditions were so difficult. But we've seen that before out of him. I think back to the very first race in Australia. I mean, he was exceptional in some of the most challenging conditions I think these drivers have seen all year. You then have to add into the fact that this was a strong Mercedes track. Some similar characteristics to Montreal in the sense a lot of long straights, a lot of big braking events, a lot of big traction events.

40:38James Hinchcliffe:So the car's in a good window. And for me, whenever the car's in a good window, Kimi can perform. He's right up there. Where he struggles is when the setup's a bit off, when the car's outside the window. George can still pull up fourth, a fifth, a sixth out of it. Kimi's struggling to make Q3s, struggling to get in the points. So while it was high-pressure situations and difficult conditions that he did a great job in and managing those pressures based on Toto's comments from last week, I still want to see them go to Singapore, where maybe they're not expected to do as well. And I want to see him closer to George.

41:13James Hinchcliffe:I expect both of them to be up there in Vegas. I don't necessarily expect that at Austin. But I want to see him closer. I think that's what he really needs to prove, is that when the weekend for the team isn't going well, he can still keep pace with what George is able to do. But there's no substitute for experience, right? And experience is the issue here. Is that what you're pointing at? Yeah, absolutely. I think you see it up and down the grid with the rookies. When the Haas car's in a good window, Behrman is very strong. When the Sauber's in a good window, and it has been lately, Bortoleto's been very strong.

41:47James Hinchcliffe:The racing bull seems to always be in a good window, so Hatchard's always strong. but you do see that separation from the rookies and the experienced drivers when the team is struggling at a particular event so Kimi's not unique in that sense I don't think for the crop of rookies this year he's just at a higher end of the grid so it's a little more under the spotlight I think I give Kimi a lot of credit for this weekend though because he's come off the back of firstly an underwhelming by Toto Wolff's assessment home Grand Prix of course he had a torrid Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix earlier in the season.

42:19And he endured a really difficult European season. And I think the Kimi that walked into the paddock in Australia is perhaps not the Kimi that we saw walk out of the Monza paddock. I think from walking in as the rookie to watch, the next big generational talent, to then having some really difficult results and having to weather a bit of a storm and then literally weather a storm here, a windstorm here. And to come away to out-qualify your teammate, even if George wasn't feeling particularly well, Kimi still got the job done when it mattered. I think it took a lot from him and I'm really impressed with Kimi this weekend.

42:52I think he was excellent and I think that P4 was on merit and very, very well deserved. We're still waiting to hear from Mercedes about confirmation of their 26 drivers. I think George Russell is a given. He's having a fantastic season. Would you guys sign Kimi Antonelli again? Because can I just preface that with there was a story in the Italian media going around just before this weekend that Antonelli's off to Alpine. Now, I don't give any credence to that myself. What would you guys do with Antonelli? You have to remember, Antonelli was never supposed to be in the car this year.

43:26James Hinchcliffe:In the grand master plan that Toto Wolff had cooked up, Lewis Hamilton was still going to be in the car. He was going to give him one more year. Antonelli was going to get that second season in Formula 2, a little more TPC testing, some more FP1s, and then they were going to throw him into the deep end. by having to fast forward that program i think you almost have to treat this year as a bit of a mulligan it gives them the opportunity to do some learning as a rookie yes unfortunately it is in you know on the main stage in front of everybody but i think if you're toto you've you've developed this kid from a very young age you have spoken about the generational ability and the faith that you have that he's the next Max Verstappen.

44:07James Hinchcliffe:It's a pretty big shot if after one year you thought, eh, no, I don't think he actually has it. And I think he's shown enough in terms of the pace and the potential. I know Max did it, but Max is different. He's a different breed. Even the other drivers, as competitive as this paddock is, all the egos that you see among racing drivers, even this group can get together and agree on one thing. Max is the best guy. They just do. And so, again, if I'm Toto, I'm keeping Kimi you have to give him a second season if anything it's a blessing and a curse that he got pushed up early because now he can kind of take this learning year get that all the way the real assessment of of Kimi's abilities I think has to start next year well we will see uh what he can do next year if he gets re-signed I think it really does level the playing field I think next year with the change in regulations it's such a huge change um and I I'm guessing yes great let's try and get peter in the constructors championship but almost more important is building kimmy antonelli for the future not putting pressure on him and let's not forget he's up against a damn good teammate that doesn't help certainly um but from the learning standpoint it's a good thing but it's interesting because sometimes when there's too much of a of a white glove treatment of a driver they get complacent's the wrong word but they know that they're protected every time they make a mistake it's oh put her there pal you're okay don't worry about it by Toto Wolff sort of changing tune I wonder if it was a very deliberate change in approach to remind Kimi that well yes we do want you to succeed we will support you to get there this is still Formula One this is still a performance-based business and you do you do still have to deliver on the racetrack and so I wonder if that kind of helped light the fire under Kimi and really reminded him like oh yeah Toto's my guy But at the same time, he's got a responsibility to the shareholders in Mercedes to make sure the two best drivers are in the car I got to make sure I'm one of those drivers bit of a tough love approach then isn't it?

46:05But you say Kimi needs a bit of confidence and that reassurance what better confidence and reassurance can you get in a contract? Right, so it's kind of a almost a vicious circle over the longer we wait to hear whether he's signed Is that more disruption in Kimi's mind that he's not secure enough? And does that then affect his performances and equally the other way around But is the insecurity helping his performance?

46:27James Hinchcliffe:Is he like, oh my God, I got to do this. Maybe I'm not going to be around next year. Hinch, I've always said that this paddock is fueled by paranoia. Whether you're a driver, a team principal, a technical director, you're always terrified that someone's going to do a better job than you. So, Kimmy, whatever it is you've done this weekend, more of it, please.

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49:54It's Yuki Tsunoda versus Liam Lawson. Liam Lawson with the momentum, with the DRS and with fifth position as it stands. He's jumped the man who replaced him at Red Bull. Lawson Tsunoda. I felt there was a lot going on in that battle, not just on track. You've got the guys swapping positions earlier in the year. It feels like they're both fighting for their Formula One futures. And actually, they both delivered. I know Lawson finishes ahead in P5 and gets that amazing qualifying of P3. But actually, I think Tsunoda had his best weekend by a long way this weekend. And, you know, you're comparing Lawson with Hajar, who is clearly a talent, but we don't know how good.

50:41We're comparing Tsunoda with Verstappen, who we've agreed most all the drivers on the grid will say is the benchmark and could be one of the best ever. And Yuki really delivered.

50:53James Hinchcliffe:He did. And what I liked was we chatted to him in the post-race show. And his approach and the way he explained and described that final stint was just it was so mature. There was a maturity to it that I certainly haven't seen a lot out of Yuki. And that's not a shot at him. It's not that he's been immature. But this was just the next level. Because it doesn't seem like they're both driving for their Formula 1 careers, Tom. They are. They are absolutely both driving for their F1 careers. And he's staring at the gearbox of his biggest obstacle to retaining a seat in Formula 1. But he said, I was thinking about the team.

51:30James Hinchcliffe:I didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize Max's race by maybe creating a safety car. He was thinking so big picture and accepting, hey, six is not where I want to be, but it's better than I've been. The team will be happy to bring this home. I can't make a 50-50 move. It's got to be a 90-10 opportunity. And then on the other side, credit to Liam. He never gave him that opportunity. He did a great job under immense pressure for that whole final stint. So I think both drivers leveled up in a big way and proved it this weekend. I thought to myself watching it how symbolic that it's these two who firstly are holding back the likes of Norris, Hamilton, and Leclerc, but are also battling on track.

52:11It's not just for P5, is it? That wasn't just a P5 result that they were fighting for today. Lawson with his best ever, Yuki with the season best. And Yuki's also mentioned to us that he does feel he's turned a bit of a corner. It's come obviously with the car perhaps turning a corner as well, but the car also coming into a better window for Yuki. He's got new parts on it that are working for him. Laurent bringing them midway through weekends, for example, in Belgium, to really ensure that he's back up to a level playing field and that he's been working really hard on the long run and making sure he can capitalise on that each weekend.

52:44And he's seeing that then comes to fruition because he said, look, qualifying may be good, but tomorrow's the test for me. This was after qualifying. today race day is the test in terms of that long run pace and how actually I go in race pace now and the changes that he's been making both to his driving style and to the car setup come to fruition and they did. I get that the points are delivered on Sunday and that's where he's been struggling but actually yesterday's qualifying was huge look at the drivers who made mistakes in those difficult conditions and he put in his best qualifying of the year and never looked like shunting either

53:20James Hinchcliffe:I have an unpopular caveat that I'm going to add to that point, though, because I agree. Anybody that didn't hit the wall yesterday, kudos, because many did. Many very talented drivers did. Had we had a more traditional session where conditions were not extraordinarily difficult and we didn't have six red flags and all these drivers going out, where would Yuki have been on the grid? Would he have been sixth on merit Had Oscar not crashed Had Lando not brushed the wall Had Leclerc not crashed Maybe But I think there's a little bit of an asterisk beside it Because again in the race we were expecting those cars To be able to make progress For a myriad of different reasons No car really made a lot of progress today So he finished where he started But had he started 10th Would he have finished 10th Had he started 12th Would he have finished 12th So it was a great result I just was complimenting the maturity that I think he's showing.

54:20James Hinchcliffe:I do want to see, again, him back this performance up in a bit more of a traditional session, be close to Max and be able to keep that second Red Bull up in the first three rows where Max can consistently keep it, but the other car has been struggling. Can I caveat your caveat with? Let's have a caveat party. Let's have a caveat off. you've got to race what's in front of you you've got to drive what's in front of you and the fact that we see Leclerc four-time pole sitter in the wall we see the guy leading the championship in the wall not just in qualifying but also today and Yuki doesn't make a mistake and doesn't make a mistake in defending either but it's a pace game this is a performance game those results came because there was mistakes made in a difficult situation where everyone was pushing to the limit is Yuki's limit just not high enough to have been as on the edge as Piastri, as Leclerc, etc.

55:16Hinch, I think he's gone over the limit too often. And one of the reasons he survived so well yesterday is whilst the Leclercs and Piastris and Albans were being too greedy, I get the conditions. I think it was partly the conditions, but I think they were all too greedy in terms of what they were trying to get out of that particular corner where they crashed. Yuki was driving within himself and got the result. In the race, he was driving within himself, got the result. And I think he's learned something from that, or I hope he has. It's that maturity. That's the maturity.

55:46James Hinchcliffe:But you need to couple that with the pure pace. You can't just be a consistent 10th place guy and expect to retain a Red Bull seed. So I 100 % agree. He is making great progress in a lot of good ways. There's still one area he needs to improve on, and that's flat-out pace. I guess you're asking, is that his ceiling? Is he at his ceiling? Yeah. Well, yeah, sure. Yeah, we can look at it that way. It's just I... Or has the improvement as big in like a global sense, in totality as we're talking about it and as it looked this weekend? Or is it still just... Is it little improvements that were kind of exaggerated this weekend?

56:29Right, a caveat to your caveat, Hinch, and to your caveat, Laura. This is good. I really like the word caveat as well. I'm enjoying this. But let's go back to when Yuki was at Racing Bulls. He was going toe-to-toe with Lawson. He was going toe-to-toe with Hajar, who now everyone is praising so much. So, yes, I know they didn't have as much experience back then, but I think raw pace is there from the outset. And so I think the pace is there. And Yuki's problem all along is that he's been just overdoing it. And let's hope he's at, you're better off at 99 % than you are at 110%. Yeah, it does feel like he's learned that lesson, for sure.

57:05excellent caveats from all i tell you what final thoughts before we go um ferrari eighth and ninth hello leclerc four-time consecutive pole sitter here yeah i think they were no predicting that we we really believed in that ferrari pace uh i think lewis climbing from p12 to p8 there's something to be said for that especially on a weekend in which it looked really difficult to overtake but i'm not sure we really talked at length about ferrari in our posture i just I mean they were in there with the fight it could have been a P5 result ultimately it was P8 and P9 Leclerc was then beaten by Hamilton it just seemed a horrible weekend again for Ferrari P1 and P2 on Friday afternoon I don't know what happens to early Ferrari promise and pace and how it comes undone through the weekend whether that's in tyre deg whether that's in car setup and ride height whether that's in decisions on the pit wall, drivers not agreeing with them, there's always a little something.

58:07James Hinchcliffe:There is. I mean, again, qualifying was so unique this weekend. But I got to say, and it was actually Montoya on the post show that kind of highlighted it. I hadn't really thought about it because 8th and 9th just seems like such a transparent result. Like it's a bit of a footnote. But in a race where we were expecting a lot of the out-of-position cars to make big ground, and almost none of them did. Hamilton from 12th to 8th and beating Leclerc, that might have been one of the drives of the day. It was kind of hidden and not really talked about. Obviously Max, obviously Carlos, obviously George.

58:44James Hinchcliffe:But I think behind that, Hamilton's dry. He actually made some progress. He beat his teammate. He was so much more confident in his race car this weekend. He visibly looked lighter and more enthusiastic and happier to be at the racetrack than he has for quite some time. and I really truly hope that whatever it is they found, because we've seen this on in sessions maybe over the last half the year in maybe over a day, but it's never over a weekend. He really carried that optimism all weekend long. Even after the poor qualifying, going into the race, he was still optimistic he could make some ground up.

59:17James Hinchcliffe:Relatively speaking, he did. I really hope that whatever they found translates to other racetracks because Hamilton's starting to find his groove in that car. That's exciting for everybody. Ferrari's been a team of moments this year, isn't it? Only moments, fleeting moments. I think that's how they will reflect on 2025. Even if they do get P2 in the Constructors' Championship, there hasn't been the consistency that you need to win a World Championship. Simple as that. Well, guys, it's been an absolute pleasure. Next segment, driver of the day. Have you just mentioned who that is, Hinch, when you were talking about Hamilton?

59:54Is he your driver of the day?

59:56James Hinchcliffe:I mean, it's tough to take anything away from the top three.

1:00:04James Hinchcliffe:He's honorable mention at worst, you know. I mean, the fans voted Carlos. I'm going to support that as well. But honorable mention for sure. Who's your driver of the day, Laura? This is just the order, and I'm picking out – I can pick out three names from there. Obviously, Carlos Sainz, absolutely do not disagree with. you've got a feel for Max with victories like this where he's barely on the television, he's so far ahead it's just mesmerising to watch him tank it round here without a mistake even GP on the radio, your pace is brilliant just keep chipping away, gets fastest lap at the end of it grand slam of a weekend in a car that perhaps on the Friday didn't look like it was going to be quite in the position it was in you've got to give it to Max Verstappen, haven't you?

1:00:49but honourable mentions, mentions or mention I'm going to just read down the order now honorable mentions for me has got to be to Lawson because he had Yuki Tsunoda who's vying for his seat at Racing Balls on his gearbox the whole day and McLaren and Ferrari and didn't let up Antonelli not buckling under the pressure and Tsunoda best result of the season for him so I've not made a decision I've missed it you're not getting away with that Verstappen's my pick of the day Verstappen for you Carlos for Hinch and I'm going to go for George Russell actually under the weather podium cover we've got the podium Yeah, yeah.

1:01:24Well, guys, thank you both very much. Wonderful to have you on the show for the first time, Hinch, and again, Laura. Many congratulations. There's going to be the patter of tiny feet in your household in February, is it? There is, yeah. We are expecting a baby, my first baby. So terrified, delighted, excited, thrilled, nervous, all at once, all the feelings. But it's just really lovely now to be able to share the news. And, yeah, countdown is on, my goodness. Well, it's huge news. Many congratulations. Thank you so much. Which brings me on to a family day, Hinch, that's taking place at Mugello.

1:02:03Man, you're driving a Formula One car quite soon, aren't you? I am.

1:02:06James Hinchcliffe:I am. Concerningly soon. Neck is not ready. Are you training? I have been. I have been as best you can. But even these 20 drivers will tell you there's only so much you can do in a gym. Ultimately, you just got to go and feel it in the car. So I expect to be very sore next Saturday But yeah next Friday get to do about a half day in in a year old Haas car at one of the fastest most physically punishing tracks in the world So yeah, let's just do that. I've told him he has to message me as soon as he's out the car to let me know he's okay Yeah, that's okay Yeah, very very excited very cool opportunity.

1:02:44James Hinchcliffe:I cannot thank the team enough It's been a lifelong dream just to just to drive one of these things and and we're making it happen. You'll get to see all about it. I'm sure there's going to be lots of coverage on it by the time we get to Singapore. Yeah, full feature on F1 TV. I can't wait to see it. Guys, thank you both very much.

1:03:06For more reaction and analysis from Baku, please go to F1.com, the official F1 app, or at F1 on social media. And you can also watch the highlights on the F1 YouTube channel. Next up, it's another spectacular street race. We'll be back next Monday with our preview of the Singapore Grand Prix, the original night race. Thanks very much for listening. F1 Nation is produced by Formula One and Audioboom Studios.

1:03:49Thank you.