Lando Norris was blunt after Thursday’s practice sessions at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, describing McLaren’s speed as "pretty pants" and making it clear he does not anticipate fighting for pole position. The British driver fell 1.5 seconds short of the session leader, George Russell, during the second practice session, a gap that highlighted how the tight, 90-degree corners of the Baku street circuit are not playing to the strengths of the current McLaren chassis. Despite arriving in Baku with a substantial aerodynamic and mechanical upgrade package – new side‑pods, a redesigned engine cover, a revised diffuser and a fresh floor edge – the team has not seen an immediate uplift in performance. Norris summed up the situation succinctly: "We are miles off.
We are up there relative and in the position we expect to be in but we are 1.5 seconds off the pace. Pretty pants." The comment comes as Norris sits 106 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli with nine races remaining in the 2026 season. When pressed about whether McLaren could close the practice deficit to Mercedes, Norris admitted uncertainty but remained hopeful. "I hope so.
I have no idea. We will see what work we can do tonight. The car doesn’t feel that bad, so it’s a little knife in the heart when you see how far off you are," he said. He added that his focus is purely on speed, noting that the current package simply isn’t quick enough.
"I drive whatever car I get given. I just want it to be quick and it’s not very quick at the moment." Norris aborted a lap in the second practice session that, had it been completed, would likely have placed him within a second of Russell’s best time.
Russell, who topped both Thursday practice sessions, praised his own car’s competitiveness over a single lap and suggested that race pace was closely matched with both McLaren and Red Bull. He also hinted that the gaps could narrow further during qualifying. McLaren’s technical chief, Rob Marshall, emphasized that the team is still in the early stages of understanding the eight new components introduced to the car.
"We had a lot of new bits on the car – a lot of learning. You put your package on and you need to learn how to dial it in and I don’t think we are there yet," Marshall explained.
He was optimistic about the aerodynamic maps, which he described as "pretty happy," but acknowledged that extracting performance will require further fine‑tuning. Qualifying is scheduled for Friday at 13:00 local time, with the Grand Prix itself set for Saturday at noon, all broadcast live on Sky Sports F1. Although overtaking is possible on the Baku street circuit, track position remains crucial because of the circuit’s narrow, twisty sections. Mercedes, represented by George Russell and championship leader Kimi Antonelli, also faced challenges.
Antonelli suffered a hydraulic leak in the first practice session and was forced to change his power unit before the second session, costing him an hour of track time. Nevertheless, he managed to finish second in the second practice, only half a second behind Russell, despite being 81 points behind his teammate in the championship standings. Antonelli described the weekend as a "good recovery" and expressed optimism about the upcoming qualifying session. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, while still the fastest of the non‑Mercedes drivers, remained more than eight‑tenths of a second off the Mercedes pace by the end of the day, even after Red Bull introduced their own upgrades for the Baku race.
Meanwhile, Isack Hadjar returned to the Red Bull garage after missing three races due to a wrist injury sustained during the summer break. Hadjar, who has secured a seat alongside Verstappen for the 2027 season, also lost valuable laps because of an engine issue in the first practice session.
Despite the limited running, he said he was "pretty happy" with the feel of the new package, noting that the car’s characteristics remained consistent with what he experienced in Budapest. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both featured in the top five of each practice session. Hamilton, a seven‑time world champion, voiced concerns about Ferrari’s tyre performance and straight‑line speed. He explained that the tyres were difficult to get into their optimal temperature window, leading to inconsistent grip levels.
"When you do an extra lap, all of a sudden they switch up and you have tonnes more grip, so that’s a really fine line and really difficult to get working," Hamilton said, adding that Ferrari’s straight‑line speed still lagged behind Mercedes. Team principal Frederic Vasseur echoed the sentiment, describing the sessions as "difficult to read" and emphasizing that fuel and engine parameters had a larger impact than usual on a street circuit.
He promised extensive work overnight to find a better balance for the qualifying run. The weekend’s schedule also includes a full slate of Formula 2 support races, with a sprint race on Friday morning, a feature race later that day, and two more F2 feature races on Saturday and Sunday. All events will be streamed live on Sky Sports Main Event.
Looking ahead, McLaren hopes to translate the data gathered from Baku’s demanding layout into tangible performance gains. The team’s engineers will scrutinise every aerodynamic surface, suspension setting, and power‑unit mapping to close the 1.5‑second gap that currently separates them from the front‑running Mercedes. For Norris, the priority is simple: extract as much speed as possible from the upgraded chassis, keep the car on the limit, and hope that the hard work pays off when the lights go out on Saturday. In summary, Thursday’s practice painted a stark picture for McLaren: despite a major upgrade package, the car remains significantly off the pace in a circuit that rewards both aerodynamic efficiency and mechanical grip.
Norris’s candid assessment underscores the challenges ahead, while the comments from Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari highlight a competitive field where every millisecond counts. The upcoming qualifying session will be a crucial test of whether McLaren can narrow the deficit, and whether the new components will finally deliver the performance boost the team has been seeking.