Lando Norris admitted that McLaren’s deficit to the entrance of the sphere after free follow for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix appears like “a bit of knife within the coronary heart”.
The Woking-based squad has introduced a complete host of upgrades to its MCL40 bundle for this weekend’s race in Baku, after Norris was cruelly denied a probable victory in Spain by a Digital Security Automotive.
Secure to say that the traits of the Baku circuit isn’t correlating to the Madring when it comes to the McLaren’s efficiency, with Norris averaging a second-and-a-half slower than George Russell’s P1 occasions in FPs 1 and a pair of.
With issues over the floorboard on each vehicles in FP1, a makeshift resolution of cable ties had been deployed to make sure extra observe time in FP2, with Norris ending the day sixth-fastest.
After the session, Norris, when requested to sum up his day’s working, was frank in his bleak evaluation.
“We’re miles off,” he admitted. “I imply, we’re up there, let’s say, relative… We’re within the place we anticipated to be in, however at 1.5 seconds off the tempo. It’s fairly pants.”
Pressed as to what his staff can do to shut the hole to Mercedes forward of FP3 and qualifying on Friday, Norris confessed he had “no concept,” including: “We’ll see what work we will do.
“The automotive didn’t really feel that dangerous, so it’s just a bit knife within the coronary heart once you see how far off you’re.”
Requested if he’s, consequently, feeling much less assured, Norris stated he didn’t “actually care how assured I’m within the automotive, I simply care concerning the tempo, and we’re not very quick.”
Norris concluded: “I don’t care. I drive no matter automotive I get given, I simply need it to be fast, and it’s not very fast on the minute. We’ll see what we will change for tomorrow.”
READ MORE – F1 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – FP2 Outcomes
