McLaren has been in the headlines lately for announcing that they are finally going to prioritize Lando Norris in his battle with Max Verstappen for the drivers’ championship. However, they started the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend on the back foot and Norris has already rung the alarm bell over the team’s performance level in Baku.
In the first practice session of the weekend, the McLarens of Norris and Oscar Piastri finished in fourth and sixth respectively, with Verstappen topping the leaderboard. And while it’s not always easy to predict the pecking order during a free practice session, the fact that Norris was almost half a tenth and Piastri was more than seven-tenths away from the Dutchman is telling of McLaren’s struggles with the setup of the car.
FP2 wasn’t any better either with Piastri finishing in P5 and Norris finishing all the way down in 17th, a striking 1.672 seconds away from Charles Leclerc’s fastest time of 1:43.484. However, it is pertinent to note that Norris was involved in an incident with Pierre Gasly in FP2.
This left Norris puzzled and led him to conclude that McLaren was the slowest of the top four teams on Friday. Norris said per a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“We still have a lot of work to do. On these types of circuits, with less grip, we are not as well organized as elsewhere. At the moment we are behind Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari”.
Weinig optimisme bij Norris na FP2. “We hebben nog veel werk te doen. Op dit soort circuits, met minder grip, hebben we het niet zo goed voor elkaar als elders. Op dit moment zitten we hier achter Mercedes, Red Bull en Ferrari.” #F1
— Erik van Haren (@ErikvHaren) September 13, 2024
Speaking in the media pen after the day’s conclusion, Norris explained that he was having to push the car too much and still wasn’t able to post a lap time anywhere close to his teammate, Piastri, who was already half a tenth down on Leclerc in FP2.
While Norris admitted that his lap times did not reflect the pace in his car, he believes that Piastri’s time was much more representative of the true underlying pace, which is concerning considering Red Bull and Ferrari are quite a bit further ahead of both McLarens.
And to make matters worse, Red Bull has had the most success at the Baku City Circuit since it was introduced on the F1 calendar in 2016. Hence, McLaren will have to dig deep to come out on top against Verstappen and Sergio Perez, who has won the race two times in the last three years.
