Lando Norris admitted on Thursday that McLaren’s speed during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix practice sessions was "pretty pants" and that he does not expect the team to fight for pole position in Baku. In the second free‑practice session Norris was a full 1.5 seconds slower than the session leader, George Russell, and the tight, 90‑degree corners of the street circuit appeared to expose the weaknesses of the McLaren package. The team arrived in Baku with a substantial upgrade bundle – new side‑pods, a revised engine cover, an updated diffuser and a fresh floor edge – yet the new components have not translated into immediate performance gains. "We’re miles off the pace," Norris explained.
"We’re in the right spot relative to where we want to be, but we’re still 1.5 seconds behind the leaders. Pretty pants," he added, noting that he is 106 points adrift of championship leader Kimi Antonelli with nine races remaining. When pressed about the possibility of narrowing the gap to Mercedes, Norris said, "I hope so.
I have no idea. We’ll see what we can do tonight. The car doesn’t feel terrible, so it’s a bit of a knife in the heart to see how far off we are.
I’m only concerned with the pace, and right now we’re not very fast. I drive whatever car I’m given – 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 own assessment, would have placed him within a second of Russell’s best time. Russell topped both Thursday practice sessions, reinforcing Mercedes’ dominance on the street circuit. McLaren’s chief technical officer Rob Marshall described the situation as "early days" for the eight new parts fitted to the car.
He said the team is still learning how to extract the full potential of the upgrades. "You install a new package and you have to learn how to dial it in. I don’t think we’re there yet," Marshall said. "The car is doing what we want it to do – the aerodynamic maps look happy – it’s just a matter of fine‑tuning the performance." Qualifying is scheduled for Friday at 13:00, with the race itself set for Saturday at noon, both broadcast live on Sky Sports F1.
Although overtaking is possible in Baku, track position remains crucial on the narrow street layout. Mercedes driver George Russell, while acknowledging the competitive nature of the circuit, admitted his team still has "plenty of work" to do. "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 power unit before the second session, costing him roughly an hour of track time. Despite the setbacks, 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 a lot of laps in FP1 and missing half of FP2 is never ideal, especially on a street circuit," Antonelli explained.
"Overall, I feel 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 practice sessions, yet he remained more than eight‑tenths of a second off the pace at the end of the day, despite Red Bull also bringing upgrades to Baku.
Meanwhile, Isack Hadjar returned to the Red Bull car for the first time since July after missing three race weekends with a wrist injury. Hadjar, who will stay alongside Verstappen as a teammate in 2027, also suffered an engine issue in the first practice session but said he was "pretty happy" with the limited running he got. "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 new package feels nice – better than when I left it in Budapest." Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both featured in the top five of the two practice sessions. Hamilton, a seven‑time world champion, expressed frustration that Ferrari were lacking performance on both the tyres and the straights. "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, noting that he avoided a penalty for allegedly impeding Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson in the second practice. "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’re 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. 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’ll try to work on tonight. Otherwise, a fun day." Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur added that the sessions were "difficult to read" and that every performance parameter – fuel load, engine settings, tyre temperature – made a bigger difference 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, followed by the third practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, an F2 feature race, and then qualifying. Saturday will host the F2 feature race, the Grand Prix build‑up, the main race at 12:00, and post‑race analysis.
All events are broadcast live on Sky Sports Main Event and can be streamed via the Sky Sports app or NOW without a long‑term contract. In summary, McLaren’s ambitious upgrade package has yet to deliver the expected performance boost in Baku, leaving Lando Norris and the team to grapple with a substantial gap to the front‑running Mercedes and Red Bull.
While the team remains optimistic that further work this evening could narrow the deficit, the reality on the track shows a car that is still struggling to find its rhythm on the demanding street circuit. The upcoming qualifying session will be the first true test of whether the new parts can be dialed in quickly enough to challenge for a better grid position, or if McLaren will have to settle for a midfield start and focus on race strategy to salvage points.