THAT'S A WRAP FROM AZERBAIJAN

BAKU TO LIFE BAKU TO REALITY.

7 min read • Published on 09/28/2026 • 10:29 AM UTC+0

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So how did things go for VCARB for the 2026 Formula 1 Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix? Here to take you on a guided tour of our weekend in Baku is none other than the infamous VCARB admin (you know, the one who caught Liam in 4K with this diabolical prank).

Quick intermission, though. We hit FOUR MILLION of you lovely lot on Instagram. Thank you so much. To give back to you all, we had Arvid and Liam let you in on some admin secrets.

As usual, we kick things off with the Creator Program race poster, and this week the wonderful @shan.illu got their creative juices flowing to create a design fitting for Baku, with the beautiful VCARB 03 front and centre.

As was expected, Liam was a tad reluctant to greet admin on his entrance to the paddock… Do you think our behaviour in Madrid still haunts him? To keep the comedy flowing, we whipped out these exceptional puns, much to the enjoyment of Arvid. With our usual shenanigans out of the way, including some heartfelt poetry and the breaking of what little trust remained between our drivers and us, we hit the streets of Baku for the first time.

The Boys in Baku

FP1: Rapid out of the gates. P7 for Liam and P8 for Arvid set a strong baseline for the rest of the weekend. FP2: P12 for Liam and P18 for Arvid, who missed a chunk of the session after clipping the wall on a push lap. Overall, it was not the easiest day of practice for the team, a sentiment also reflected in Liam and Arvid’s respective day one debrief.

Friday in Baku brought our third Practice session to life as our boys practised race runs and prepared for Qualifying. Arvid and Liam both made it through to Q2, and set times that would see them lining up P12 and P15 respectively for the Race. Day two in the bag and plenty to debrief ahead of the 51-lap Grand Prix.

The Baku Circuit is no walk in the park. 20 turns and 3.7 miles of tight, angular street racing. It’s the fourth-longest track on the calendar and one of the most unforgiving. Our boys were in for a real challenge on race day.

Arvid on the grid

Arvid opted for Mediums at the race start, while Liam went for the Softs. Everybody got around the opening lap safely, with our boys both making up a position - Liam passing Bearman and Arvid passing Sainz. As the race settled and the laps began to clock up, Bearman was able to get back past Liam on Lap 6, putting our resident Kiwi in a defensive battle with Albon. Further down the field, Arvid lost a position to the charging Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and sat in P11 when…

SAFETY CAR. Albon crashed his Williams into the wall on Lap 31 and put a pause on full-speed racing as the debris was cleared up. In the meantime, Arvid and Liam pitted for fresh tyres and prepared for the race to resume. The green flag waved on Lap 36 and all cars stormed into Turn 1. Up ahead, the two Alpines collided, and caused a chain reaction through the field which unfortunately saw Arvid make contact with Liam and spin him around, leaving him towards the back of the pack with a lot of work to do. Arvid subsequently publicly apologised to Liam and the team for the contact, making clear that it was entirely unintentional and a direct consequence of the chaos at the restart.

Liam on the Baku streets

This incident brought out another Safety Car and racing resumed on Lap 39, with Arvid now up in the points in P10. Up ahead, Piastri locked up his tyres and fell down the order, promoting Arvid up to P9. Then, in an incredible move, Arvid made an overtake on Bearman into Turn 3 to secure P8. Arguably the overtake of the race, though we might be biased…

On the final lap, Bottas crashed into the barriers at Turn 16 and the yellow flags were waved. In the fracas of navigating the debris of the damaged Cadillac, Arvid maximised his battery management to get the run to the line versus Ocon, grabbing P7 by less than a tenth of a second in a dramatic photo finish. Liam finished in P12, just over one second shy of the point-scoring positions, in what was a great recovery drive from the back of the field.

Liam and Arvid in the Azerbaijan paddock

A weekend of mixed fortunes here in Baku. Plenty of positives to take into the next race, though. Here are the thoughts and feelings from Arvid, Liam and Alan:

ALAN PERMANE (TEAM PRINCIPAL)

“It was quite a race for us today and, honestly, we were fortunate to come away with the result we have. We were able to capitalise on the opportunities that presented themselves throughout the race, and to come away with six points for the team is a really positive outcome from a challenging weekend. We’ve had a tougher-than-usual weekend in terms of performance, but the cars certainly performed better today than they have done across the rest of the weekend. That gives us another set of data to analyse and learn from as we look to understand where we can improve. I’m looking forward to returning to Malaysia next week. It’s a physically demanding race for the drivers, particularly with the high temperatures and humidity, so preparation will be key. We’ll take the learnings from this weekend with us and focus on arriving in Malaysia in the best possible shape to put together a strong performance.”

ARVID LINDBLAD #41

Race – Finish Position: 7th, Start Position: 15th "First of all, I want to apologise to Liam and the team for the incident at Turn 1 after the restart. It was chaotic as the field bunched up and we were all pushing the limits, so I think everyone ended up braking a little too late. I was ready to make a move on Esteban, but he moved at the last moment and I just didn’t have anywhere else to go. Aside from that, it was a good race for us. It’s been a difficult weekend for us, so to come away with points is certainly a positive. A huge credit to the entire team for all the work they put in throughout; we executed the race well, and it was good fun battling with the two Haas towards the end. Now we’re looking forward to getting back out there in the next couple of weeks, with Malaysia and Singapore coming up."

LIAM LAWSON #30

Race – Finish Position: 12th, Start Position: 11th “Not the greatest race for me today, but I’m pleased the team could come away with some valuable points and recover some ground in the Championship fight with Alpine. We’ve struggled with pace all weekend, so that’s something we’ll work on over the rest of the triple-header. We got caught up in a crash at Turn 1 during the restart, which caused some damage to the car and meant we couldn’t push forward as much as we would have liked. We’ll take what we can from today and be back next week, ready to fight again."

Please, admin, can I have some more? MORE? Go on then. Join us from 2-4 October for Round 16 of the World Championship and the FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX IN MALAYSIA 2026.

VCARB signing off from Baku xo