Lando Norris admitted that McLaren’s speed during Thursday’s practice sessions at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was "pretty pants" and that the team does not anticipate fighting for pole position. In the second practice session Norris was a full 1.5 seconds slower than the session leader, George Russell, and the tight, 90-degree corners of the Baku street circuit seemed to expose the weaknesses of the current McLaren package. The team arrived in Baku with a substantial upgrade bundle that included brand‑new side‑pods, a revised engine cover, an updated diffuser and a re‑shaped floor edge. Despite the extensive work, the upgrades have not translated into an immediate performance boost.
"We are miles off," Norris said. "We’re where we expect to be relative to the field, but we’re still 1.5 seconds off the leading pace. Pretty pants." At the time of his comments Norris was 106 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli with nine races remaining in the season. When pressed about whether McLaren could narrow the gap 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’re not very fast. I drive whatever car I get, but I want it to be quick and it isn’t right now." During the second practice session Norris aborted a lap that, according to his own assessment, would have brought him within a second of Russell’s time.
Russell topped both practice sessions, reinforcing Mercedes’ dominance on the day. McLaren’s chief technical officer, Rob Marshall, offered a measured perspective on the new parts, describing the situation as "early days" for the eight new components.
"We have 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 added that the aerodynamic maps appeared satisfactory, but the team still needed to extract the full performance from the new package. Qualifying is scheduled for Friday at 13:00 local time, with the race itself set for Saturday at noon, both broadcast live on Sky Sports F1.
Because the event takes place on a street circuit, track position remains crucial despite the overtaking opportunities that Baku traditionally offers. Mercedes driver George Russell praised his car’s single‑lap speed, saying the vehicle felt competitive over a lap and that race pace appeared closely matched with McLaren and Red Bull. He believed the gaps would tighten further in qualifying.
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli endured a hydraulics leak in the first practice session and was forced to change his power unit before the second session, losing an hour of track time. Nevertheless, Antonelli managed to finish second in the second practice, just half a second behind his teammate Russell. He reflected, "We tried to do the maximum with what we had. Losing a lot of laps in FP1 and missing half of FP2 is never ideal, especially on a street circuit.
Overall, I think it was a good recovery. I feel quite good in the car. A few things to work on but I’m looking forward to tomorrow." Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the closest challenger to Mercedes in the practice runs, yet still lagged by about eight‑tenths of a second despite the team’s own upgrade package for Baku.
Meanwhile, Isack Hadjar returned to the Red Bull seat after missing three races due to a wrist injury sustained during the summer break. Hadjar, confirmed as Verstappen’s teammate for the 2027 season, also suffered an engine issue in the first practice but remained optimistic, stating, "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. 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. Hamilton, however, expressed frustration with Ferrari’s tyre performance and straight‑line speed.
He noted, "I felt generally good in the car. The track is awesome to drive. In FP1 I felt very strong and thought we were doing well but in FP2 the others took another step.
It’s trying to understand, we didn’t change anything on the car, but the others took a step somehow. 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, with each performance parameter – fuel load, engine mapping, tyre temperature – having 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 includes an F2 sprint on Friday morning, a third practice session later that day, the F2 feature race, and finally the Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying. Saturday will host the F2 feature race, the Grand Prix itself, and post‑race analysis. All events are streamed live on Sky Sports Main Event and can be accessed via the Sky Sports app or NOW streaming service without a long‑term contract.
In summary, McLaren’s extensive upgrade effort has yet to deliver the expected performance gains at Baku, leaving the team scrambling to close a substantial gap to Mercedes and Red Bull. Norris’s candid remarks underscore the frustration felt throughout the paddock, while rival teams continue to fine‑tune their packages ahead of a crucial qualifying session that could reshape the championship battle as the season moves toward its final stages.