The second half of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix produced plenty of drama, but one of the most interesting stories heading into Malaysia is what happened between teammates. The first Safety Car restart turned into chaos for Alpine and Racing Bulls. Franco Colapinto collided with his teammate Pierre Gasly, while Arvid Lindblad made contact with Liam Lawson. Both Gasly and Lawson lost their chance to score points, while Lando Norris was also caught up in the incident involving the Alpine cars. Lindblad at least managed to recover and finish seventh, limiting the damage from what could have been an even more costly incident. For Colapinto, however, the consequences continued beyond Baku. He will start this weekend with a five-place grid penalty after being judged responsible for the collision. Alpine Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore was also openly critical of the incident, saying Colapinto had taken full responsibility but that he had braked “far too late” for the circumstances of the Safety Car restart. There is no shortage of time to analyse what happened, but the interesting part will be seeing how quickly everyone moves on. F1 doesn’t give drivers much time to recover from a difficult weekend. Seven days later, they are back in the same cars, working with the same teammates and potentially finding themselves racing wheel-to-wheel again. Whether Baku changes anything inside those teams remains to be seen.
Fresh from an exciting finish in Baku, Formula 1 heads somewhere it hasn’t been in almost a decade.
The Malaysian Grand Prix is back, although not quite in the circumstances anyone expected. After the Bahrain Grand Prix was postponed in April, Sepang stepped in as the replacement venue, bringing one of the most familiar circuits of the 2010s back to the calendar. And while George Russell arrives as the man to beat after a dominant weekend in Azerbaijan, there are plenty of questions heading into this round of the triple-header. Can Russell continue closing the gap to Kimi Antonelli? Will Mercedes’ latest upgrade make an already competitive car even stronger? And, perhaps most interestingly, how will the drivers who were involved in Baku’s chaotic Safety Car restart respond so quickly after a difficult weekend?
George Russell’s weekend in Baku could hardly have gone much better. The Mercedes driver was immediately comfortable with the car, topping the early practice sessions before taking pole position and then leading every single lap of the race to claim his third victory of the season. But the result was not quite as straightforward as it may look on paper. Max Verstappen put Russell under serious pressure during the second half of the race, forcing the Mercedes driver to stay completely focused until the chequered flag. Russell managed to keep his composure and secure his first Grand Prix victory since Austria in June. More importantly, the result allowed him to take another step towards Kimi Antonelli in the Drivers’ Championship. Antonelli had a difficult start to the Baku weekend and found himself down in 16th on the grid, but he recovered impressively to finish fifth. That meant Russell reduced the gap from 81 points to 66. It is still a considerable advantage for Antonelli, especially considering how consistent he has been throughout the season. But Russell has looked increasingly comfortable since the summer break, and Mercedes now seem to have found another level of performance. The races are coming thick and fast, so there is very little time to reset. If Russell can carry his Baku form into Sepang – and avoids a power unit penalty, which he will be getting sooner or later – another reduction in Antonelli’s lead could be on the table.
Three consecutive victories have put Mercedes in a very strong position, and now the championship leaders are arriving in Malaysia with another upgrade for the W17. That could be particularly interesting because the Brackley team had previously warned that August and September could be difficult months as their rivals continued introducing updates of their own. There was a period in which the team managed just one victory in four races. Since then, however, Mercedes have won the last three. The W17 was already a competitive car, so the big question is what this new package can add. Sepang should give the team plenty of opportunity to understand the changes, with three practice sessions before qualifying. At the same time, an upgrade is never simply a case of adding new parts and immediately going faster. The drivers also need to understand how those changes affect the balance and behaviour of the car. That could be particularly important in Malaysia, where the combination of long straights, high-speed corners and demanding conditions puts a lot of emphasis on finding the right compromise.
There is something special about seeing Malaysia back on the Formula 1 calendar. The circuit hosted 19 editions of the Malaysian Grand Prix before its final race in 2017, and during those years it became one of the venues that fans associated with unpredictable and often entertaining racing. It is also a circuit that asks quite a lot from the cars. The long straights at the beginning and end of the lap create opportunities for overtaking, while the fast middle sector puts the aerodynamic performance of the cars to the test. And then there is the weather. Rain has always been one of the biggest variables at Sepang, and if it makes an appearance this weekend, it could completely change the complexion of the race. Only ten drivers on the current grid have previously started a Grand Prix there, meaning that more than half of the field will be experiencing the circuit in a Formula 1 car for the first time. That makes this weekend particularly interesting. It is unfortunate that Bahrain had to be postponed, especially given how often the Sakhir circuit produces close racing. But Sepang is hardly a bad substitute.
After nine years away, Formula 1 is finally heading back to Malaysia. And with a championship battle tightening, a Mercedes upgrade to watch and plenty of unfinished business from Baku, the return could hardly come at a more interesting point in the season.
