Feature

F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2024 Azerbaijan GP

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Yuki Tsunoda, RB (Lap 14, Damage): 5.5/10
It's all gone a bit sour for RB this season. They started full of hopes with a new team principal and assurances that they weren't going to be Red Bull's junior team any more but rather its equal partner in success. But as problems have mounted for the senior squad, RB seem to have been left in the corner and forgotten about. The biggest loser is Yuki Tsunoda: this was supposed to be his breakout season, one that would put him in the running for a top seat at Red Bull, but now such hopes appear all but gone. He's had some rotten luck and hasn't scored points since the summer break: the latest upgrades for the VCARB01 failed to perform at Monza even before he was punted out of the race by Nico Hulkenberg. And he suffered a similar fate here with a first lap clash with Lance Stroll. After limping around for 15 laps, the damage to his sidepod proved unsurmountable and he pulled into pit lane. For the second race in succession he was the first and only official retirement of the day.

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin (Lap 45, Brakes): 5/10
You'd think that Lance Stroll would be top of the world after this week's announcement that technical icon Adrian Newey s joining Aston Martin in 2025. But come Friday it was back to the reality of the here and now. Things started well enough on Friday where he was in the top ten and ahead of his team mate Fernando Alonso, but the situation flipped overnight. While he made the first cut in qualifying he was slowest of anyone in Q2 which put him in dangerous territory for the start of the race. He duly made contact with Yuki Tsunoda on the first lap that punctured the RB's sidepod, and while Stroll was able to continue it was clear that the Aston was compromised. He was able to do little in the cockpit and retired six laps from the end with brake issues.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.