Previewing the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Key takeaways

• Red Bull re-signed Isack Hadjar for 2027 with a playful "wrist clinic" video, and the hosts note he's had the closest teammate battle with Max Verstappen since early Sergio Perez—raising questions about whether new regulations or the Horner-to-Mekies leadership change are letting a second driver actually compete rather than being sidelined once Verstappen shapes car development.
• Racing Bulls is in no rush to finalize its 2027 lineup, weighing incumbents Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad against F2 championship leader Nikola Tsolov (turning 20 in December). The hosts argue Red Bull's driver pipeline works like a demotion machine; once you're sent down (as happened to Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda), you rarely climb back to the senior team, so Lawson remains a "safe pair of hands" rather than a returning star.
• McLaren replaced its 1981 M-logo with a new design inspired by Bruce McLaren's original garage sign, drawing immediate comparisons online to the Marriott Bonvoy hotel logo. The hosts question how a rebrand that recognizable made it through approval without anyone flagging the resemblance.
• F1's 2026 calendar adds a Monaco sprint race, meaning two qualifying sessions and two races at a track already criticized for having zero on-track action on Sundays. The hosts call out journalists who defended the move with lines like preserving "the tension of the classic 78-lap endurance test," arguing it undercuts Saturday's traditionally premier qualifying session and mainly serves brand and sponsor interests (Nike, Gucci) rather than viewers.
• Ferrari is restructuring its power unit department ahead of 2027, moving Francesco Mortini from its GT program and bringing in an unnamed Red Bull Powertrains specialist currently on gardening leave. The hosts tie this to Ferrari's admission that losing a key engine staffer to Audi forced a "bodged" 2026 power unit, arguing the team's chronic pattern of stepping on its own rakes (then publicizing the mess) has likely cost Lewis Hamilton a competitive shot at an eighth title.
• The Baku City Circuit is a 3.7-mile, 20-corner street track that the hosts rank as one of the more watchable street venues because its long front straight enables real DRS passing into Turn 1, even though the tight "castle section" (the narrowest point on the F1 calendar) and processional middle sector still produce plenty of one-stop, low-degradation races and wall-clipping incidents.

Notable moments

• The Isack Hadjar contract video features a fake "wrist clinic" sign and an x-ray with a thumbs-up before he signs his extension on camera.
• "First question, as an engineer, what problem were you solving? What was broken?"; Spanners on McLaren's logo change.
• A quoted article described the new Monaco sprint as granting "a flat-out dash to the flag with championship points on the line before the afternoon's high-stakes main qualifying," which the hosts initially assumed was satire.
• Max Verstappen raced 100 competitors in a knockout go-kart event at Silverstone, clearing the field in 14 laps and 35 minutes with a fastest lap about three seconds quicker than anyone else's; commentator Nate Saunders lasted just 10 seconds before elimination.
• Spanners recalls Daniel Ricciardo crashing into Verstappen's Red Bull gearbox after a late defensive weave, a move that later prompted F1 to change its weaving rules.
• The hosts revisit Lewis Hamilton's 2021 brake bias mishap at Baku, which handed Sergio Perez the win, as required "homework" before the weekend.
• "You stepped on those rakes. No one pushed you."; on Ferrari's pattern of self-inflicted problems followed by public explanations.

Time saved: 1 hour, 3 minutes.