McLaren has been the benchmark in 2025, marching toward back-to-back constructors' crowns, but the Azerbaijan Grand Prix offered a rare stumble: Oscar Piastri crashed twice across the weekend and Lando Norris salvaged just seventh place, leaving Baku with only six points.

Two in-depth paddock reads concluded that the 2025 McLaren package can be difficult to handle around the Baku City Circuit’s low-grip streets and unforgiving walls. With Piastri’s qualifying shunt followed by a race-ending mistake after a false start drama, and Norris unable to climb higher than P7, the papaya squad encountered one of its most challenging Sundays of the season.

A knife-edge car in Baku

While McLaren’s year-long dominance has been built on pace and consistency, the unique demands of Baku highlighted how narrow the set-up window can be. The team’s speed remained evident, but the combination of heavy braking zones, traction-limited exits and close walls punished even minor misjudgments.

• Piastri: crashed in qualifying and the race, leaving Baku with zero points for the first time in 2025.
• Norris: seventh at the flag, contributing all six of McLaren’s points from the weekend.

The broader media conversation reflected this reality check, with questions raised about where McLaren’s pace went on a circuit that has historically rewarded stability and confidence over kerbs and under braking.

Title fight pressure: Norris vs Piastri

Amid the on-track wobble, the drivers’ title fight added fresh intrigue. Oscar Piastri still leads Lando Norris by 25 points with seven rounds remaining, but former IndyCar racer James Hinchcliffe believes the previously harmonious dynamic may begin to fracture under championship pressure. McLaren has consistently emphasized equal treatment and fair opportunities for both drivers, and team principal Andrea Stella has praised Piastri’s season-long consistency—making the Australian’s Baku errors all the more uncharacteristic.

What it means ahead of Singapore

Despite the Baku dip, McLaren remains on the brink of clinching the constructors’ title and heads to Singapore with the chance to put the weekend behind it. If the Azerbaijan GP underscored anything, it’s that even the most dominant car can be a handful when the margins are razor-thin—and that the Norris–Piastri title storyline is only intensifying.