Lando Norris openly admitted that McLaren's speed during Thursday's practice sessions at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was "pretty pants" and that the team does not expect to fight for pole position in Baku. 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 tight, 90-degree corners of the Baku street circuit do not seem to suit the current McLaren chassis.
Despite bringing a substantial upgrade package to the track – new side‑pods, a refreshed engine cover, a revised diffuser and an updated floor edge – the team has not yet translated those components into measurable on‑track performance. "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," Norris said, noting that he sits 106 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli with nine races remaining.
When pressed about the possibility of narrowing the gap to Mercedes, Norris replied, "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.
I just care about the pace and we are not very fast. 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 second practice that, had it been completed, would likely have placed him within a second of Russell, who topped both practice sessions on Thursday. The aborted lap underlined the frustration the British driver feels, knowing that a single quick lap could dramatically improve his standing but that the car's current package simply does not allow it. McLaren's chief technical officer, Rob Marshall, offered a more measured perspective, describing the situation as "early days" for the eight new components that have been fitted 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 added that the aerodynamic maps appear promising, but the team still needs to extract the performance from the new hardware.
"I think the car is doing what we want it to do. The aero maps seem pretty happy.
It's just a matter of dialling the performance in." Qualifying is scheduled for Friday at 1 pm, with the race itself set for Saturday at noon, both events to be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is run on a street circuit, meaning that while overtaking is possible, track position remains crucial. Mercedes driver George Russell, who also posted the fastest times in practice, acknowledged that his team still has work to do. "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, adding that the gaps should shrink further after qualifying. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli suffered a hydraulic 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 managed to finish second in the second practice, just half a second behind his teammate Russell.
"We tried to do the maximum with what we had. We lost quite a few laps in FP1 and missing half of FP2 is never ideal, especially on a street circuit," Antonelli reflected. "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 both practice sessions, yet he remained more than eight‑tenths of a second off the Mercedes pace despite Red Bull's own upgrade package for Baku. Meanwhile, Isack Hadjar returned to the Red Bull car for the first time since July 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 experienced limited running because of an engine issue in the first practice session, but he 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 drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both featured in the top five of each practice session. However, Hamilton, a seven‑time world champion, voiced concerns that Ferrari are lacking straight‑line speed and are struggling to get the tyres into their optimal operating window. "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. He noted the difficulty of extracting grip from the tyres, describing a narrow window where the rubber suddenly provides much more adhesion after an extra lap.
"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 echoed the sentiment, saying the sessions were hard to interpret and that every performance parameter – fuel load, engine mapping, tyre temperature – had a larger impact than on a conventional circuit.
"They were not very pleased with the balance so we have a lot to do tonight to find a good solution for tomorrow," he added. The weekend schedule includes a Formula 2 sprint race on Friday morning, followed by the third practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a Formula 2 feature race, and then the qualifying session for the main event.
Saturday will see the second Formula 2 race, the Grand Prix build‑up, the race itself at noon, and post‑race analysis. All sessions will be streamed live on Sky Sports Main Event and can also be accessed via the Sky Sports app or NOW streaming service, which offers a contract‑free, cancel‑anytime option. In summary, McLaren's ambitious upgrade package has not yet delivered the expected performance boost in Baku, leaving Lando Norris and his engineers facing a steep challenge to close the gap to the front‑running Mercedes and Red Bull cars. The team must continue to fine‑tune the new components, improve aero efficiency, and extract more speed from the car's power unit before qualifying on Friday.
Meanwhile, the rest of the grid is also grappling with the unique demands of the Baku street circuit, from tyre management to straight‑line power, setting the stage for an intriguing and unpredictable race weekend.