Max Verstappen pressure making McLaren nervous - Dr Helmut Marko

McLaren’s grip on the 2025 championship wobbled in Baku, with Oscar Piastri crashing out twice in a weekend.

His boss, Andrea Stella, says the Australian was “severely punished for small mistakes”. The 24-year-old Australian, who had racked up 44 consecutive race finishes before Sunday, hit the wall in qualifying and then retired again in the race after a comedy of early lap 1 errors.

“Oscar has been the most consistent driver this season so far,” Stella told reporters. “He was severely punished for small mistakes. He will learn from this. It’s happened to even the greatest champions, like Michael Schumacher.”

Not everyone was so charitable. Sky Deutschland pundit Ralf Schumacher dismissed Piastri’s errors as “a sudden loss of talent”. He added: “It’s good for (Lando) Norris to see that his teammate can also make mistakes. The pressure is on now, and it won’t leave anyone unscathed.”

Stella admitted the otherwise dominant McLaren car was not blameless either. “The car didn’t deliver the grip, predictability, and consistency the drivers usually need to fully exploit,” he explained.

“As soon as Oscar pushed the limit a little, it was a disaster. On tracks with heavy braking and tight corners, our car doesn’t deliver the best performance. Fortunately, most tracks aren’t like this one.”

Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko suggested Max Verstappen’s resurgent pace is starting to rattle the papaya team. “It’s not that common for a McLaren driver to fail to finish, but I always say, you have to be as close as possible to make them nervous," he said.

Former F1 driver Christijan Albers went further, blasting McLaren’s operations. "They have an incredibly dominant car,” he told Viaplay. “Andrea Stella is building that team around himself, but I saw the same thing with Andreas Seidl, he was also so hyped.

“They have a fantastic car, but their strategy is poor, and the drivers are inconsistent. If you put Max, Russell, or Leclerc in that car, you’d have a completely different championship.”