Lando Norris admitted that McLaren's speed during Thursday’s practice sessions at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was "pretty pants," and he does not anticipate a realistic shot at the pole position. In the second practice session, Norris was a full 1.5 seconds slower than the session leader, George Russell, a gap that highlighted how the slow‑speed, 90‑degree corners of the Baku street circuit seem to be ill‑suited to the current McLaren chassis.
The team arrived in Baku with a substantial upgrade package that includes brand‑new sidepods, an updated engine cover, a revised diffuser and a freshly shaped floor edge. Despite the extensive work, the upgrades 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 currently trails championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 106 points with nine races still to run. When asked whether McLaren could close the gap to Mercedes in the remaining practice time, 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, Norris aborted a flying lap that, based on sector times, would likely have brought him within a second of Russell’s best. Russell topped both practice sessions, underlining Mercedes’ continued dominance on the Baku street circuit.
McLaren’s chief technical officer, Rob Marshall, described the situation as "early days" for the eight new components on the car. He explained that the team is still learning how to extract the full potential of the package. "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 said.
"The aero maps seem pretty happy. It’s just a matter of dialing the performance in." Qualifying is scheduled for Friday at 1 p.m. local time, with the race itself on Saturday at noon, both broadcast live on Sky Sports F1. Although overtaking is possible on the Baku street layout, starting position remains crucial because the circuit’s narrow sections and tight corners penalise mistakes.
Mercedes driver George Russell praised his car’s single‑lap speed, noting that the team’s race pace appears closely matched with both McLaren and Red Bull. "I’m sure those gaps will tighten even further when we get to qualifying tomorrow," he added. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli suffered a hydraulics leak in the first practice session, and Mercedes were forced to change his power unit before the second session, costing him roughly an hour of track time. Nevertheless, Antonelli still managed to finish second in the second practice, just half a second behind his teammate.
He said, "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 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 more than eight‑tenths of a second slower than the leading times, despite Red Bull also bringing updates to Baku.
Meanwhile, Isack Hadjar returned to the Red Bull car for the first time since July after a wrist injury kept him out for three race weekends. Hadjar, confirmed as Verstappen’s teammate for the 2027 season, also suffered an engine issue in the first practice but remained "pretty happy" with the limited running. He commented, "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. "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," Hamilton said.
He added that the team’s tyres are "really, really difficult to get to work" and that finding the optimal operating window is a fine line. "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. 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 echoed the sentiment, noting that the sessions were hard to interpret because each performance parameter—fuel load, engine mapping, tyre temperature—had a larger impact than on a typical 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, the F2 feature race, and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying. Saturday will host the F2 feature race, the Grand Prix itself and post‑race analysis, while Sunday will feature a build‑up to the race and a reaction segment. All sessions are streamed live on Sky Sports Main Event, with additional streaming options available via the Sky Sports app and NOW for flexible viewing.
Overall, the Baku weekend has highlighted McLaren’s struggle to translate a heavy upgrade package into immediate on‑track speed, while Mercedes and Red Bull continue to dominate the top end of the field. The upcoming qualifying session will be crucial for determining whether any of the trailing teams can narrow the gaps and challenge for a podium finish in a circuit where track position is as valuable as outright pace.