F1 Focus: Piastri perfection as McLaren make their move in Azerbaijan

Tracks to be added to the F1 calendar in the last decade or so have been a bit hit-or-miss, but Baku's street circuit is most definitely a hit, isn't it?

Not for the first time in recent years, it gave us one of the races of the season with Oscar Piastri being hunted down by Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez at the front of the pack for 30 laps and somehow managing to hold them both off. 

Things were just as exciting further back with Lando Norris chasing down and passing championship rival Max Verstappen right at the death while exciting rookies dazzled behind them.

These are my main takeaways from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Piastri's on the path to greatness

Piastri was arguably the most hyped young driver since Verstappen when he joined the grid last season, and he's very much showing why now.

After getting past teammate Norris with an excellent overtake and then comfortably staying ahead last time out in Monza, the Aussie was even more impressive in Baku, producing one of the drives of the season.

The move he made to take the lead from Leclerc was good, but the fact that he was then able to hold off the Ferrari and Perez, despite the fact that they had DRS and he didn't, was genuinely special. Only a quite literally perfect drive was going to be good enough for him to win, and that's exactly what the McLaren driver delivered.

He's now finished outside of the top two just twice in the last seven races and in that time has displayed all the attributes needed to become a complete driver - he can be rapid in qualifying, he can look after his tyres and his wheel-to-wheel racing is excellent. Add in the fact that he's only 23 and it becomes hard to imagine him failing to win multiple championships in the years to come.

It's even beginning to feel like he could wrestle the status of team leader from Norris sooner rather than later if he keeps driving the way he is, even if he may have to play second fiddle to the Brit for the remainder of this season, speaking of which...

Time for McLaren to prioritise Norris 

Thanks to Piastri's win, Norris' excellent recovery drive and Perez's late crash, McLaren now not only lead the Constructors' Championship but lead it by 20 points.

Given they've had a much faster car than Red Bull for a while now, they can feel confident about keeping that lead even if they have to somewhat shackle their number two driver, so that's exactly what they should do.

Their decision to avoid hindering Piastri's own races in order to aid Norris has been understandable up until this point given they as a team needed all the points they could get to catch Red Bull, but now that they've done so, they can fully focus on the other championship, in which Norris is 59 points behind Verstappen.

With seven rounds to go, the McLaren man needs to score an average of eight points more per weekend to make up that deficit, which won't be easy but is far from impossible, and the task can be made considerably smaller if Piastri agrees to play the team game.

For instance, if Piastri is leading a race with Norris second and the two swap places, the latter will suddenly have seven points more and comfortably have the margin he needs over Verstappen for that round. That alone could decide the title fight. 

It may be somewhat harsh on Piastri given how well he's driving and he may not be happy about it, but the stakes are too high to worry about fairness right now with both titles well within reach. 

Colapinto, Bearman show the future's bright

With the exception of Piastri, no particularly exciting youngsters have entered the sport in the past five years or so, but the race in Baku showed that may well be about to change. 

Oliver Bearman replaced the suspended Kevin Magnussen at Haas for the weekend and looked just as good as he did when he made his F1 debut for Ferrari earlier this season, out-qualifying teammate Nico Hulkenberg - one of the best qualifiers around - before coming home in 10th to give the team he'll be driving for permanently next season a vital point. 

Two places ahead of him was Franco Colapinto, who has dazzled since replacing Logan Sergeant at Williams for the remainder of the season. In Baku, he qualified up in ninth and crossed the line in eighth, and was not much slower than highly-rated teammate Alex Albon across the weekend. 

There may not be space for him at Williams beyond the end of the season but the Argentine has been so impressive that I wouldn't be surprised if Audi, currently Sauber, try to snap him up for their second seat. Watch this space.