Faster than an Alpine, with more team rules than any type of fruit, a tenth as excited about Lando Norris than Sky F1, and with more hope of getting out of Q1 than certain drivers, it’s the F1 Donkey with his unique view on F1 and more. Before each race The F1 Donkey puts the ass in sass and unloads his alternative, slightly unhinged thoughts on F1 including this week’s Bold 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Predictions and opinion.
The F1 Donkey’s Pre Azerbaijan Grand Prix Thoughts
So after the Italian Grand Prix there are now two Championship battles.
One is the actual World Championship where Oscar Piastri has a handy lead with a shrinking number of races left.
The other is who/what wants Oscar Piastri to win the World Championship the least.
First there’s McLaren. They have been accused of favouring Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri, and events in the Italian Grand Prix don’t make that accusation go away.
Sure Lando Norris was unlucky with the pit stop taking longer than it should, but he’s got plenty lucky with the right strategy calls over Oscar despite making bad starts of a few races this season. Does anyone think that the running order would have been reversed if the fortunes were.
There was no swapping in Britain when a penalty given to Oscar Piastri for shenanigans during a Safety Car period was deemed unfair by the team. If so, then like the slow pitstop, places should have been swapped. But they weren’t, and they won’t.
We know there will be more and more papaya rules to come in 2025. And lots more Mr and Mrs Norris. Among others.
Our data boffins did the math, and as always, the homework, and if the Italian GP repeats itself, with Max Verstappen blowing the McLarens away and laughing at their papaya rules, and McLaren asking Oscar Piastri to give second place to Lando Norris, in every available race and sprint race left, Oscar Piastri will still win the World Championship, just only by four points, with Max Verstappen almost getting there too. Maybe McLaren are holding back Oscar Piastri for the entertainment pleasure of F1 fans worldwide, which is mighty generous. If true. Which it isn’t.
Then there’s Sky F1. The most biased sporting coverage in sport today.
Their love affair with Lando over providing balanced coverage is getting almost embarrassing and the crew should be appalled at themselves.
Then there’s the F1 TV coverage producers, because Oscar’s parents aren’t interesting or trackside enough to cut to glimpses of them in the pits instead of showing the actual action on track. So bad has this obsession of parents, partners, well wishers and straight-up corporate junkees become on the F1 coverage that they almost missed Max Verstappen taking the fastest pole position in history.
Imagine a slice of F1 history being lost to showing a parent or partner clapping their hands in the pitlane.
Sky F1 of course say that’s OK as long the pole sitter is Lando Norris and the persons being shown on the coverage are Norrises.
Of course there’s Max Verstappen who can still win the Championship.
Toro Rosso will also not want Oscar Piastri to win the Championship because they do what Red Bull tell them to do.
Yuki Tsunoda probably doesn’t mind if Oscar Piastri wins the World Championship, because it will distract people from how little he is enjoying the Red Bull. But then if that’s the case, Isack Hadjar probably doesn’t want Oscar Piastri to win the Championship because then he might end up in the Red Bull.
Perhaps Red Bull should enter one Red Bull next year and three Racing Bulls. Not that Yuki would get one of those on current form.
We’re sure Lance Stroll doesn’t want Oscar Piastri to win the World Championship, because we presume he hates Formula One, the World Championship, all participants in the World Championship, all drivers who have started more than three Grands Prix, any driver who has outqualified him, any circuit where he has crashed and/or spun off, climate change, F1 media, any media, especially any former Formula One driver who is now in the media and himself.
Alpine probably don’t want Piastri to win the World Championship given their history of announcing him to drive for their teams without talking to him, but then again it might the closest they ever get.
Toto Wolff from Mercedes would only prefer the driver that would piss off Christian Horner the most. Or he could use the driver who doesn’t win the Championship as leverage for re-signing either of his drivers.
I can’t imagine any other team would prefer Oscar Piastri over Lando Norris. But then again, Formula One is a selfish, selfish business, and things can change. Or maybe Mr Norris has more behind the scenes strings than anyone thinks.
All we know is Sky F1 won’t stand for it. Or will cry trying.
And for more tears, of laughter, sadness, or boredom, here are the bold predictions for the race weekend ahead.
The NRL Donkey’s Bold 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Predictions
And here they are, in a convenient team by team format, so you can ignore them all at your convenience or peril. Depending on the outcome of our prediction.
McLAREN
Lando Norris to run into the wall during qualifying, where upon that the team will also ask Oscar Piastri to crash into the wall for absolute fairness within the team. Although that sounds more like an Alpine/Renault/Flavio trick.
RED BULL
Max Verstappen to take advantage of McLarenigans (a lame attempt of mixing McLaren with Shenanigans) and take pole, and win with ease. Causing papaya boffins to start calculating how they can possibly throw away a Championship.
MERCEDES
George Russell to quietly produce another under-the-radar successful weekend.
FERRARI
Charles Leclerc has taken pole positions for the last four seasons, but because we just predicted Max Verstappen to take pole we can’t do the same for Leclerc. But maybe third on the grid? The same can’t be said for Lewis Hamilton, he’s only taken pole here once when he had the best car for a few years and averages only 6.333 on the grid the last three seasons. When he wasn’t so out of sorts at a team like now.
WILLIAMS
Solid midfield qualifying and points for Alex Albon. Bumper Cars midfield ride for Carlos Sainz who will either get penalised again or DNF. Maybe both.
ALPINE
Colapinto in the wall for sure during practice. And both drivers will probably be eliminated in Q1.
RACING BULLS
This will be a track where Isack Hadjar will show all the speed he has. And then put it into the wall during the race. Maybe it is sabotage on purpose so he isn’t hired by the main Red Bull team for 2026, as is being reported.
ASTON MARTIN
What about a top six qualifying for Fernando Alonso, with a bunch of points to go with it. Lance Stroll can put his car in the wall for all I care. And he probably will.
HAAS
Oliver Bearman to make Q3 then lose a points paying drive when he over-aggressively defends his place during the race. I forgot to do something for Esteban Ocon.
SAUBER
No qualifying heroics from The Hulk. He is the only current driver who has never made it to Q3 in Azerbaijan. Yes even Lance Stroll has made it. Bortoleto we can’t rule out.
The NRL Donkey’s 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Stats
Our stats team told me I should include some graphs to go with the poisonous viewpoint. So here then are some form stats for qualifying and the race.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix – DRIVER PREVIEW RATINGS
The stats boffins at The Gurgler have compiled a whole bunch of stats from this season, and recent seasons at this weekend’s venue, added a multiplier for recent results and come up with a score out of 100% which equates to each driver’s chances of doing well this weekend. Just to make finding a winner for a race more complicated than it needs to be.
Here are The Gurgler Driver Preview Ratings for this weekend.
F1 2025 Season Stuff
We’ve worked hard getting ready for the 2025 F1 Season, and this is our best work below.
ITALIAN GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
DUTCH GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
BELGIAN GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
BRITISH GRAND PRIX – RATINGS
AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
CANADIAN GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
SPANISH GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
MONACO GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
EMILIA-ROMAGNA GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
MIAMI GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
SAUDI ARABIA GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
JAPANESE GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
CHINESE GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX – REVIEW — RATINGS
2025 F1 SEASON PREVIEW – DRIVERS
2025 F1 SEASON PREVIEW – TEAMS
2025 F1 SEASON – THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR AND AVOID
AI DOES F1 – TURNING CARS INTO ANIMALS
F1 2024 Season Stats
Want to remember what happened last season? Here’s a bunch of our best work to sum up the 2024 F1 Season.
F1 2024 FULL RACE REVIEWS ALL 24 RACES
