Ferrari’s nightmare in Baku: lost ground in the championship and Sainz on the podium before Hamilton. Ferrari suffers another nightmare weekend at the 2025 Azerbaijan GP in Baku.

Ferrari leaves Baku shattered: from a mediocre car to losing second place in the standings, with Sainz adding insult to injury

Ferrari leaves the streets of Baku in pieces. A combination of circumstances exposed all of the team’s current weaknesses, and one detail in particular made the final outcome even more bitter. On the demanding city circuit, the Maranello squad delivered what may have been one of its worst performances of the season.

Only eighth and ninth, plus a Constructors’ setback

The eighth and ninth places collected in Azerbaijan are only part of the story of Ferrari’s downfall. The real damage came in the standings: Mercedes overtook Ferrari for second place in the Constructors’ Championship, while Red Bull is closing in and threatening to push the Scuderia down another spot. The situation now looks even more dramatic than expected just a few races ago.

Sainz on the podium with Williams before Hamilton with Ferrari

The most striking and painful statistic for Ferrari fans – and perhaps even for the team itself – is that Carlos Sainz reached the podium in Baku. For the Spaniard, who lost his Ferrari seat at the end of 2024, such an achievement with Williams would have been unimaginable at the start of the season.

The real sting comes from the fact that Sainz managed to stand on the podium before Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari. The seven-time world champion has not yet reached the top three since joining the Scuderia. Even more concerning, Hamilton has not started from the front row once since moving to Maranello. By contrast, Carlos Sainz built his Baku podium on the strength of his second place in Saturday’s qualifying session.

A symbolic blow for Fred Vasseur and Ferrari

What happened in Baku does not represent an irreversible condition, nor should it be taken as a final condemnation for Fred Vasseur and his team. Still, it inevitably highlights that something is not working at Maranello. Some have already begun to wonder if letting Sainz go in favor of Hamilton was in fact a miscalculation.

A powerful image of Ferrari’s struggles

Of course, a single race does not define the season of a team or a driver, and it would be wrong to jump to radical conclusions. But the image of Hamilton walking away with his head down while Sainz celebrates an unpredictable podium could well become one of the most symbolic moments of the 2025 Formula 1 season.