Everything we learned on day one at F1's Azerbaijan GP

Two stories - one that's been announced, and another that's developing - have helped fill in a couple more gaps in the 2027 Formula 1 driver market ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Throw in drivers' reactions to the recently announced Monaco sprint race, the arrival of an unexpected tech upgrade, and engine-penalty updates at Mercedes and Ferrari, and it's been a surprisingly newsworthy Wednesday in the F1 paddock.

Here's what we've learned so far from this early-starting Baku weekend.

McLaren's bringing revised sidepods

McLaren is continuing its aggressive upgrade push in Baku, with dramatically revised sidepods as part of the package it will evaluate during FP1.

This follows the major aerodynamic upgrade introduced across the Hungarian and Dutch GP weekends either side of the August break and the first on-track appearance of the revised H-wing at Monza, a part that will reappear this weekend having been taken off the car for the Madring two weeks ago.

The sidepods have been reshaped to have a very different downward ramp shape as they travel rearwards, which is closer to the Ferrari and Mercedes designs. There's also a revised, more vertical inlet shape similar to the Audi design. - Edd Straw

No engine penalty yet for Russell...

Baku's long straights mean it is an attractive place for drivers to take engine change penalties, which is why that option remains on the radar for Ferrari and Charles Leclerc.

But over at Mercedes, the manufacturer and its driver George Russell have committed to waiting a bit longer to add the final power unit to the pool.

As has been hinted at before, the timing of Russell's final power unit change is planned to coincide with an ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) step that Mercedes will introduce at some point soon. The United States GP at Austin in late-October would be a logical place for it.

From Russell's perspective, there is no point taking a grid drop now only to then face another one a few races down the road when the better parts come along.

There has been speculation that the Mercedes ADUO upgrade will revolve around the turbo, something that Russell himself all but confirmed in Baku when he said he was having to wait because he had to take an extra one in Hungary after a failure in qualifying.

"It's all a bit complicated," he said. "But long story short, if I took one now, I would have had to have taken another one." - Jon Noble

...and Hamilton's engine might've 'gained a race'

We are at that stage of the season where most F1 teams are furiously trying to work out if their drivers have enough miles left in their power units to get to the end without the need for a grid drop penalty.

For some (such as Russell) that fate is unavoidable, so it is a matter of picking the best time to do it.

Lewis Hamilton had been in a similar situation over recent weeks as it looked like he would not make it through to the end of the campaign without a swap.

But ahead of the Azerbaijan GP, Hamilton revealed that there was a silver lining to the cloud of his early Spanish GP retirement. The DNF reduced the mileage on his latest power unit enough to make it possible to now get through to the end of the campaign with what he has.

"I 'gained' a race, so I think it should be OK," he said in Baku.

However, he has suggested that a tactical call could come into play if Ferrari concludes that the extra performance a fresh engine gives outweighs the downside of any grid drop.

"Naturally with engines, from new to when they've done several races, there is a difference in performance, so we will take that decision later on in the year," he said.

Team-mate Leclerc is one of those who will need a fresh one at some point. He is weighing up when best to take a penalty, and it's not impossible he elects to do so in Baku this weekend.

One good bit of news for him, though, is that his Monza engine, of the latest ADUO 2 spec, is now back in his pool and available to be used. - JN

Ocon and Haas set for split

As reported by The Race's Scott Mitchell-Malm, Esteban Ocon is now expected to be let go by Haas at the end of the year without a renewal offer - leaving him with limited options to continue an F1 career that has already spanned nearly 200 starts.

While the seat Ocon currently occupies has not been filled officially, The Race understands Ferrari's Formula 2 title-contending junior Rafael Camara is in pole position - and it doesn't appear like Ocon is even second choice.

Ocon certainly spoke on Wednesday like a driver who knows there is no joint future with his current team, describing himself as a "free agent" and repeatedly deflecting questions about a continued employment at Haas.

And he clearly feels hard done by, given Haas's well-documented issues in the matter of its two cars producing consistent, equal load weekend to weekend.

"My performance hasn't been an issue this year. I've performed every time I had the [performing] car," he said. - Valentin Khorounzhiy

Red Bull's rookie can't argue with Hadjar deal

In recent years, a rookie season as healthy as the one Arvid Lindblad has enjoyed in Red Bull's second team has usually meant an immediate graduation to the main team - in large part because Max Verstappen has been demolishing anyone matching up against him as a team-mate.

But Lindblad will have to wait until 2028 at the earliest to get a promotion. And while he reckons Isack Hadjar's extension at the main team came "a little bit earlier than normal", he says he can't question the decision.

"Full credit to Isack, he's probably been one of the first drivers in the last eight years that has been performing well as the second driver in Red Bull - so also fair play to him that he gets that comfort of getting announced a bit earlier," Lindblad acknowledged.

"For myself, it wasn't really something I was thinking about; I'm very focused on myself, I know my own path and trajectory that I'm on. I'm very happy where I am at the moment."

Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson indicated that the prospect of taking Hadjar's seat was also never really a topic for him - even after his impressive stand-in stint at Red Bull in recent races - and that the new Hadjar deal is "not surprising". - VK

Williams is now underweight

Williams has been overweight all year, up to now. Crucially, Alex Albon has confirmed that not only is the car on the minimum weight limit of 768kg thanks to the introduction of two brand-new chassis, but it is in reality below that.

This allows Williams to carry ballast, which is useful for fine-tuning the weight distribution.

"We've been carrying a substantial weight penalty this year so far," said Albon. "Going into this weekend, we've got ballast on the car, so you could imagine there's a big [performance] swing in many ways. The weight itself is a big thing and weight is a guarantee of laptime, so that's why we know it will be a good step regardless of how the aero side performs - but it's a good upgrade."

At the start of the season, the Williams FW48 was understood to be around 28kg over the weight limit. While that was whittled away at in the ensuing races, it required the new chassis to achieve the majority of the weight reduction.

That, combined with the aerodynamic upgrades, is expected to give a significant performance bump to the Williams, which has been the ninth-fastest car on average this season but lately slipped to 10th behind the improved Aston Martin-Honda.

However, as Albon has pointed out, this is an upgrade that "in any other year would have been a massive one" but that isn't as big a relative stride as it normally would be given the overall rate of development across the grid.

Nonetheless, he says "it's certainly going to get us back in contention with that group" - even if team-mate Carlos Sainz offered the downbeat verdict that "even with all the upgrades, we're still going to struggle to get out of Q1 and we're going to struggle to be at the top end of Q2".

Williams isn't the only car that's running lighter in Baku. Aston Martin also has what chief technical officer Enrico Cardile recently characterised as the completion of its weight-saving programme for the Azerbaijan GP. - ES

Hamilton breaks ranks on Monaco sprint choice

The drivers stayed broadly on positive message when asked about the decision to make Monaco a sprint event.

However, after Sergio Perez hinted there may have been a little dissent in the drivers' WhatsApp group, which he described as "a bit busy" after the news emerged, Lewis Hamilton broke ranks to deride the idea - albeit also throwing in the benefit cited by many drivers that having double the qualifying was a potential gain.

"It makes no sense to me," said Hamilton. "On the positive, maybe we get another qualifying session, which is quite cool, but I've always said that Monaco needs something different. I don't think it should be the same race formula that it is everywhere else.

"We've already included sprint races, which I think have really brought something new to the sport. But I think we've got to come up with something new for somewhere like that. Because it's a beautiful place, such a beautiful country, and an incredible circuit to drive - but the race is as dull as it gets.

"I don't know what that is, but a sprint race is not the answer."

That’s not to say there weren’t reservations detectable in what others said, even if they were careful not to be too overtly critical.

Pierre Gasly, for example, said that "objectively, Monaco is not the place to overtake so I don't expect the sprint to be particularly different to the Sunday, but my favourite quali of the year is Monaco, at least you're going to have two shots at it". That’s a position Perez shared.

Sainz suggested that having the extra qualifying session would be "really cool", but that having two races is "not ideal", pointing to the idea of a special format to tackle this. Arvid Lindblad went a step further.

"They should sack off the sprint on these weekends and just do FP1, sprint quali, give the points for sprint quali and then you do FP2, quali, race," said Lindblad. "The drivers would enjoy that a bit more and you would have an incentive to push in sprint quali because that’s where you get the points." - ES

Cadillac hopes brakes finally off the agenda

Brake angst has not-so-quietly defined much of Cadillac's first season in F1, and even an intended fix in Hungary has not prevented subsequent brake-related retirements or the need for excessive management.

Valtteri Bottas says, however, that already at that point Cadillac "knew we needed a further step" that was "already in the pipeline".

That step is here, and Bottas hopes it will finally put the issue to bed - protecting the MAC-26 in Baku but also more pertinently at the humid races of Singapore and Sepang.

"This weekend we have quite a big upgrade to the brake cooling," said Bottas. "So, we're going to have much more airflow through the brakes - which has been the main cause of stoppage this year with the car.

"So, finally we're getting this upgrade and that's going to help us - for sure a little bit here, but mostly in Malaysia, Singapore. And hopefully this issue we've had with the brakes is now behind us." - VK

The case for extended races, not shorter ones

F1 races will be two to three laps shorter in 2027 (barring Monaco) to match the increased fuel-flow rate - but Hamilton thinks that's the wrong direction for race lengths.

"I don't really know anything about it or any of the reasons they put behind it [but] I think the races should be longer, because the races are physically easier than ever before," Hamilton said.

"There's been many races where I wish we had more laps. So it's the opposite that I would be asking for: longer races, to be honest.

"This is supposed to be the sport that's the most physically demanding; mentally and physically.

"There are some that are just so hot and ultimately you are on the edge. Singapore is incredibly hot and demanding. Malaysia will be crazy this year.

"But that's where I think you want to see athletes, just right on the edge, right? Right on the edge of their performance, having to actually push their bodies further, because that's what this sport is about.

"So shortening the races makes absolutely no sense to me."

Lance Stroll said "we're just going around the corners 30-40km/h slower than last year, so it just makes it much less physical" - but Verstappen wasn't convinced F1 has got all that much less strenuous.

"It depends. Sometimes they [the cars] are quite a handful, so I wouldn't say they are...like you're still sweating.

"Sometimes, actually it's harder to keep it on the road at times. But yeah, in general, I guess a little bit more relaxed.

"It's also probably more comfortable because last year on the straights you're constantly hitting the ground really aggressively.

"Now with straight mode, you're just floating a bit. It's just different." - JS

Nurburgring and Spa for Verstappen - but no Le Mans yet

When F1 finally unveiled its 2027 calendar, many took note of there being no clash with next year's Nurburgring 24 Hours (May 29-30, slotting in between Canada and Monaco), nor the Spa 24 Hours (June 26-27, between Portugal and Britain).

The relevance was the understanding that Max Verstappen had those two races circled on his calendar - and that understanding is accurate, Verstappen confirmed this Wednesday.

"I said already, of course, after the [2026] race in the Nordschleife that I wanted to go back," Verstappen insisted. "So, if it allows me to prepare well and it all works out well...I know there is no clash, but if it still needs to work out in my schedule, [and if it does] then I'll do it. And Spa is an exciting option, yeah, to do it."

What about the Le Mans 24 Hours, though, scheduled for June 12-13, between the aforementioned F1 races in Monaco and Portugal? It's "not on my list right now", Verstappen said.

Fernando Alonso, who had talked of teaming up with Verstappen at the endurance race he is already a two-time winner of, said that particular Le Mans plan will wait until "Max is a little bit more free on the calendar. There are a lot of races! Maybe in the future. Would be very nice".

Lando Norris, who tested McLaren's new LMDh prototype last week at Portimao, also downplayed the possibility of taking on Le Mans any time soon. - VK