Lando Norris admitted that McLaren’s speed during Thursday’s practice sessions at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was "pretty pants" and he does not expect the team to fight for pole position. In the second practice session Norris was a full 1.5 seconds slower than the session leader, George Russell, with the tight, 90‑degree corners of the Baku street circuit appearing to expose the weaknesses of the McLaren chassis.
The team arrived in Baku with a substantial upgrade package that included brand‑new sidepods, a redesigned engine cover, an updated diffuser and a fresh floor edge. Despite the extensive work, the new components have not produced an immediate performance boost. "We are miles off," Norris said. "We are up there relative to where we expect to be, but we are 1.5 seconds off the pace.
Pretty pants." The British driver, who sits 106 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli with nine races remaining, was candid about the gap. When asked whether McLaren could close the practice deficit to Mercedes, Norris replied, "I hope so.
I have no idea. We’ll see what 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.
I just care about the pace and we are not very fast. I drive whatever car I get, I just want it to be quick and it isn’t at the moment." During the second practice session Norris aborted a lap that, according to his team, would likely have brought him within a second of Russell’s time.
Russell topped both practice sessions on Thursday, reinforcing Mercedes’ dominance on the high‑speed Baku layout. McLaren’s chief technical officer, Rob Marshall, cautioned that it is still "early days" with the eight new parts on the car.
"We have a lot of new bits – 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 added that the aerodynamic maps appear to be performing well, but the team still needs to extract the full performance from the package.
Qualifying is scheduled for Friday at 13:00, with the Grand Prix itself set for Saturday at noon, both broadcast live on Sky Sports F1. Although Baku allows overtaking, track position remains crucial on this street circuit.
Mercedes driver George Russell noted that while the car feels competitive over a single lap, there is still "plenty of work" to be done. "It’s been a positive first day here in Baku. The car felt competitive over a single lap, and our race pace looks closely matched with McLaren and Red Bull," he said.
"I’m sure those gaps will tighten even further when we get to qualifying tomorrow." Championship leader Kimi Antonelli suffered a hydraulic leak in the first practice session and was forced to change his engine before the second session, costing him roughly an hour of track time. Despite this setback, Antonelli still managed to finish second in the second practice, only half a second behind his teammate Russell. "We tried to do the maximum with what we had.
Losing laps in FP1 and missing half of FP2 is never ideal, especially on a street circuit," Antonelli said. "Overall, I feel like it was a good recovery. I feel quite good in the car.
A few things to work on but looking forward to tomorrow." Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the closest challenger to Mercedes in the two practice sessions, yet he remained over eight‑tenths of a second off the leading pace despite Red Bull’s own upgrades for Baku. Meanwhile, Isack Hadjar returned to the Red Bull car for the first time since July after missing three race weekends due to a wrist injury sustained during the summer break.
Hadjar, confirmed as Verstappen’s teammate for the 2027 season, also lost valuable track time because of an engine issue in the first practice but expressed optimism. "It feels good. I had a good feeling. Not many laps unfortunately but this will come.
I’m not really worried too much about the pace," he said. "The feeling with this new package, we know the characteristics are the same with the car, but it feels nice – better than when I left it in Budapest." Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both featured in the top five of each practice session, but Hamilton, a seven‑time world champion, felt the team was missing performance on the tyres and on the straights.
"I felt generally good in the car. The track is awesome to drive. FP1 I felt very strong and I thought we were doing well but in FP2 the others took another step," Hamilton explained, noting that Ferrari had not changed anything on the car while rivals seemed to improve.
He highlighted the difficulty of getting the tyres into their optimal window on Baku’s surface. "These tyres are really, really difficult to get to work. You do an out lap and a prep lap and they are still not in the window and still don’t provide you with the grip.
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. But we try our best and some teams do it better than others.
We have to look into that. Then our straight‑line speed is not as good as Mercedes. Whether we can close that deficit tomorrow, we will try to work on tonight.
Otherwise, a fun day." Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur added that the sessions were hard to interpret because every performance parameter – fuel load, engine mapping, tyre temperature – had a larger impact than on a conventional circuit. "The drivers were not very pleased with the balance so we have a lot to do tonight to find a good solution for tomorrow," he said. The weekend schedule continues with an F2 sprint on Friday morning, followed by the third practice session for the Azerbaijan GP, an F2 feature race, and then qualifying.
Saturday will host the F2 feature race, the Grand Prix itself, and post‑race analysis. All events will be streamed live on Sky Sports Main Event, with the option to watch via the Sky Sports app or NOW without a contract.
The 2026 Formula 1 season presses on, and the Baku street circuit promises another dramatic chapter as teams scramble to fine‑tune their cars for the demanding layout.