I read rumours that Red Bull already decided that Isack Hadjar will be their 2nd driver. Surprise surprise, how unexpected. Oh shit, here we go again. I think most of us already can see how it's going to end.

Maybe I missed something, but why did they move Azerbaijan race to Saturday.
And sprint race in Singapore? They must be kidding. Why not in Monaco.

Yes, that's right, we'll have two races on Saturday, in Las Vegas and in Azerbaijan. The Las Vegas race was originally planned as a Saturday night race, but the Azerbaijan race was moved to Saturday to avoid clashing with a national holiday.



It's likely due to Monaco's narrower layout, which makes overtaking less likely. Furthermore, the sprint race format has fewer laps, so there's less spectacle. Meanwhile, a sprint race in Singapore makes more sense. Although both are street circuits, Marina Bay is more spacious and has slightly modified the layout, making overtaking possible.

We are in Azerbaijan this week and I'd like to share a really interesting statistics by Leclerc here. 



5 poles in the last 5 races on this track... One of them is sprint shootout in 2023 by the way. Really impressive, right? But 0 wins for Leclerc in all these races.

However I think he's still likely to go for a pole again. I doubt his win again on the other hand.

I was sarcastic when I mentioned Monaco. It wouldn't make any sense to make sprint where it's impossible to overtake. Singapore is something similar. I think it's bad decision to make sprint in this track where we don't see many successful overtakes.

As long as they have Max, they can continue changingbtheir 2nd drivers, but I doubt that they will get any result from it.

I actually think the opposite that he will not be able to get pole and also not be able to win in this race, because McLaren is quite dominant at the moment, and Ferrari also seems to be not very consistent in their performance, so to get pole position or win in this race might be quite difficult for them. Unless Max or McLaren have serious problems with their car, maybe Charles can have a good chance to win this race, if not, well we don't need to expect too much from Ferrari.

I think Hadjar is doing a big mistake by joining Red Bull in 2026...    Isn't it obvious that they will continue to make nearly all of their investments into Verstappen's car again?

If they are planning to change their vision and care about the constructors championship more then okay. In that case Hadjar can really be competitive. Otherwise he will waste his time there.

---

Another thing I have heard of is that F1 management is planning to bring reverse grid for sprint. It might be fun for us to watch but I still find sprint races very unnecessary...

^  Didn't think much of what you said when you mentioned how Leclerc could make it close.    But when I looked at the FP2 results...  I was very surprised that the guys at Ferrari pulled off a 1 - 2.

Nice to see Hamilton as the top for a change.  Even if it's just a practice session.

Here are the results.

2025 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix FP2 Results

1   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Scuderia Ferrari HP   1m41.293s
2   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari HP   1m41.367s
3   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m41.770s
4   Kimi Antonelli   ITA   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m41.779s
5   Oliver Bearman   GBR   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m41.891s
6   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m41.902s
7   Liam Lawson   NZL   Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team   1m41.989s
8   Esteban Ocon   FRA   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m42.167s
9   Alex Albon   THA   Atlassian Williams Racing   1m42.177s
10   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m42.199s
11   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Atlassian Williams Racing   1m42.255s
12   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m42.295s
13   Isack Hadjar   FRA   Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team   1m42.443s
14   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m42.444s
15   Gabriel Bortoleto   BRA   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m42.561s
16   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m42.674s
17   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m42.771s
18   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m42.820s
19   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m42.967s
20   Franco Colapinto   ARG   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m43.322s