Lando Norris says McLaren's pace in Thursday's practice sessions at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was "pretty pants" and is not expecting to contend for pole position. Norris was 1.5 seconds slower than pace-setter George Russell in second practice with the slow-speed 90-degree corners seemingly not suiting McLaren's car. McLaren have brought a major upgrade package to the car in Baku, including new sidepods, engine cover, diffuser and floor edge but the new parts have not instantly given them more performance.
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," said Norris, who is 106 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli with nine rounds to go. Asked if McLaren can close their practice deficit to Mercedes, he added: "I hope so.
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." Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Norris aborted a lap in second practice which likely would have put him at least within one second of Russell, who topped both practice sessions on Thursday. McLaren chief technical officer Rob Marshall says it's "early days" with the eight new items on the car and everything is working as expected.
"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," he said. "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 takes place on Friday at 1pm with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix itself on Saturday at 12pm, all live on Sky Sports F1, as Sunday is Remembrance Day in Azerbaijan. Although you can overtake in Baku, track position is still important because it's a street circuit and Russell says "there's still plenty of work" to do for Mercedes.
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