The Mad Max Express marches on at Baku. Can Verstappen be stopped? Photo: USA Today Sports / John David Mercer.

After a slow start to the season, Red Bull and Verstappen appear invincible. Also question marks about Lewis Hamilton and, oh, what about Ferrari?

Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix featured Red Bull’s Max Verstappen running away from the field, his teammate Sergio Perez coasting along into second, and a Mercedes team surviving being bounced like rubber balls to take third and fourth.

But the story of the race was not about drivers or chassis. Rather, it was about the Ferrari engines which currently seem about as reliable as a counterfeit Rolex purchased on a New York City street corner.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took his fourth consecutive pole with a near-perfect final lap in Q3. But after teammate Carlos Sainz completed only eight laps before retiring with a hydraulics issue, Leclerc’s engine continued working for 21 of the race’s 51 laps before ending the driver’s day in a puff of smoke.

This came just two races after a similar failure ruined another chance for Leclerc at Barcelona, bookending a Monaco race where a team strategy failure turned a probable victory into a fourth-place finish.

Even worse for the Ferrari organization, two of the team’s four customer cars also had engine failures, causing retirements for Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.

The team’s cars that did manage to complete the full race distance did so at slower speeds, with Valtteri Bottas complaining about an unknown issue with his Alfa and Haas’ Mick Schumacher focusing on staying on track rather than challenging the cars in the mid-field.

If Ferrari team principle Mattia Binotto has any idea of what’s causing the engine problems, he’s not letting on, at least not yet. He stated in an interview "Sometimes it isn't a short fix. I don't know if we will have to do shorter mileage, or a different type of usage."

This is certainly not encouraging for fans of the team hoping for a return to the top spot, especially after watching Verstappen look unstoppable this year on Sundays. Although Red Bull has had a few reliability issues of its own, it has now been at the top of the podium in five consecutive races.

And should Ferrari require sacrificing any performance for reliability, 2022 could become a one-team race for the championship.

Mercedes also may have to consider making a change involving sacrificing speed, after Lewis Hamilton emerged from the car in obvious agony at the conclusion of the race.

Hamilton had complained of back pain early on, as the bumps in the streets of Baku made the ongoing porpoising problems affecting the field this year even worse. Teammate George Russell has been speaking out recently on the need for the FIA to implement a solution to the problem, but perhaps not surprisingly, if Mercedes wants to change the rules mid-season, then Red Bull chief Christian Horner is against it.

In an interview, Horner not only insisted that it would be unfair to penalize his own team for a problem that is more so affecting others, but also implied that Mercedes was playing up the issue, saying if he was in Mercedes shoes, he would be telling his drivers to complain as much as possible over the radio.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff had said that Hamilton may be forced to miss the next race due to the back issue, but Hamilton posted on social media that he plans on being ready.

Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly had an impressive weekend, qualifying sixth and finishing fifth, while teammate Yuki Tsunoda had his race ruined after a strange incident where the DRS flap on his rear wing split in half, requiring him to pit for a NASCAR-style duct tape repair.

Despite the strong result, Gasly joined the chorus of voices calling for a mandated solution to the porpoising issue (notably not in agreement with Horner), worrying the physical punishment during the races could lead to long-term health effects for the drivers.

Along with Gasly for Alpha Tauri, another driver scoring a 2022 team best was Sebastian Vettel, who held off old rival Fernando Alonso to finish sixth.

Also, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo broke into the points for only the second time this season, leading the team to a double points finish in eighth and ninth, getting some help from a well-timed safety car.

Lastly, George Russell’s third-place finish continues his streak of finishing in the top five every race this season.

The frequent flyer miles continue to build up as the series makes its second trip to North America this weekend, returning to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal for the first time in three years following two pandemic-related cancellations.

Gregg Fielding has followed all forms of motorsports since watching the ABC nighttime broadcasts of the Indy 500 in the late 1970s. He lives in New York, is particularly keen on F1 and IndyCar, and has attended the Brooklyn Formula E events since their first running in 2017. Follow Gregg on Twitter @GreggFielding