Three Talking Points From The 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Calum Gill 18:13 07/06/2021

We have just witnessed yet another great race in both Azerbaijan and the 2021 season.

With Sergio Perez taking his first win for Red Bull, and Max Verstappen & Lewis Hamilton both failing to score, in addition to podiums for Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly, the race ranked high in excitement between the races so far this season.

Here are some of the key talking points from Sunday's race.

Red Bull second seat curse ends

Before Sunday, the last win for Red Bull not taken by Verstappen was through Daniel Ricciardo at the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix. Between Ricciardo and current driver Perez, two drivers had partnered Verstappen. First, it was Gasly, who was demoted back to Torro Rosso at the midpoint of the 2019 season. Gasly subsequently took his first podium in Brazil later that year, before his maiden win for AlphaTauri at last year's Italian Grand Prix. Replacing him was Alex Albon, who in his 18 months or so with the team yielded two podiums, both in 2020. He was dropped, after consistently not being close to the front of the field, and was replaced by Perez.

The chances are that Verstappen should have won at the weekend, but his tyre failure (which I will get onto later) meant that did not happen, giving Perez his second-career win. What is more interesting to note is that Perez was in a position which the second Red Bull car had not been in for a while, which was right behind the front runners. Not just providing back-up to defend Verstappen against their rivals, but being there to score valuable points when it goes wrong for those up-front. He certainly did this, and, as a result, extended his team's lead in the constructors standings.

Big tyre failures leave big questions to be asked

The size and the sporting importance of the tyre failures that occurred during the race will leave big questions to be asked of supplier Pirelli. Firstly, Lance Stroll had a scary shunt on the main straight when the left-rear tyre on his Aston Martin blew, travelling at speeds close to 190 mph. He hit the wall hard, and was cleary surprised at what had just gone on. And then, on lap 46, then-leader Verstappen's left rear tyre blew at 200 mph, spinning him into the wall and out of the race. The fact that it happened on the championship leader will carry big questions from Red Bull to Pirelli as to how this happened. 

One reason could be the fact that Pirelli brought the C5, C4 & C3 tyres, a step softer than what was used last time out in Azerbaijan. With teams trying to stretch out tyre life to do the one-stop, there was always a risk of this happening, especially with the softest set available. Pirelli themselves have said that their initial thoughts is that the failures were caused by debris on track. This theory can be believed for the Verstappen crash, as the debris from Stroll's crash could have still been on the circuit, but it is hard to see where any debris may have come from to cause the latter's crash. Either way, Pirelli have questions coming towards them which need to be answered.

Vettel finally hitting form at Aston

Sebastian Vettel finally seems to be finding his feet at Aston Martin, with a fifth place finish in Monaco, and a first podium for the Silverstone-based team with second in Baku. In his first few races, Vettel had a shaky start, with 14th in Bahrain, a last-lap non-finish at Imola and back-to-back 13th place finishes in Portugal and Spain. The 5th place in Monaco was no doubt aided by a good strategy from the Aston Martin team, but in the Azerbaijan race, the old Vettel seemed to come back. Vettel put a good move on Gasly on the restart after teammate Stroll's crash, and then defended well after the standing restart to take the chequered flag in second place.

It was a great drive, from 11th on the grid, and showing that he has not lost that racecraft which gained him his four world titles. It seems that Vettel has his mojo and smile back, which I am sure is a sight welcomed by all in the paddock. I think that should he keep this run of form up, and Aston provide a good car, setup and strategy, there is no reason why he cannot win a race before season's end.

What are your thoughts on the race? Leave them in the comments section down below.