Lando Norris says McLaren lost out in qualifying in F1 Azerbaijan GP for being stuck where it was, as Andrea Stella talks about another pit error.
While his teammate had a disaster, McLaren’s Norris lost out to Isack Hadjar and Charles Leclerc in the opening sequence in F1 Azerbaijan GP. He was caught out due to brake issues in the later, but he managed to regain both the places later on in the grand prix. It wasn’t much still, as he got stuck in seventh then after.
Despite having slightly higher pace, Norris couldn’t push through Liam Lawson and or Yuki Tsunoda. The Brit lamented the qualifying result, which led to the race situation. Despite Piastri’s retirement, he couldn’t capitalise to the fullest, with only six points gained on the Australian to trim the gap to 25.
“Yup, pretty much,” said Norris to media. “I think today was just a results performance of yesterday. I think we were also not that quick, honestly. I don’t think we were bad, but I could barely keep up with Tsunoda, and there were parts of the track where the Red Bulls were just unbelievably fast — had no chance to keep up with them in some areas of the track.
“We clearly struggled a little bit this weekend, this race. The car was difficult to drive, on a bit of a knife’s edge at times. Easy to either be just too slow, sometimes kind of feel like you’re there, and then f**k up and then something goes wrong. The car didn’t fill us with a lot of confidence this weekend, and I think that showed probably in both of our performances.
“Don’t ask me [about the safety car re-start]. I was just struggling with my brakes temps and it just made the brakes little bit…I could have easily got to Turn 1 and locked and something. It was just that my brakes were cold and I was probably focused on that than the re-start,” summed up Norris, who felt McLaren had the pace to finish on the podium if not challenge Max Verstappen.
But he reiterated that qualifying dictated terms, in the end. Also, team boss Stella didn’t think that the slow pit stop cost him hugely. “I don’t think they were big struggles,” continued Norris. “I think on ultimate pace we were still not bad this weekend. I was still quick in FP1, FP2, FP3 and so forth. I think if it was a normal quali, yes.
“I think the tricky conditions, the water yesterday, the little bit of rain going up first on track, all added up to making it a worse weekend. Our position today, I think if I started second, I think I would have finished second. I don’t think we had the pace of Red Bull, honestly. That was very, very clear. I think just the lower downforce tracks, we still seem to struggle.
“We still don’t have the confidence we need. It can be quick, we’re just not able to repeat it as often as we need to and as often as the Red Bull, for example. We’ve had an amazing season, don’t get me wrong, but we clearly have things that are not good enough and we have to keep working on them.”
Race, result –
Stella: “On Lando’s side, we were hoping to have a car that was in condition to overtake, in fairness. But the reality is that the car wasn’t fast enough to stay close to the car ahead out of last corner to then be able to overtake down the straight. This means that Lando spent the entire race in traffic, despite feeling that the car had more to offer. Overall, I think I’ve said that yesterday, that these kind of circuits don’t seem to suit our car very well in terms of its strengths. But at the same time, definitely there was more available in the car in qualifying and in the race we did not exploit.”
Slow stop –
Stella: “Well, we still have to check whether even with the fastest pit stop we could have been ahead or not of a Ferrari. Then we managed to overtake and regain this position, which was good, it was important for the points and for Lando’s championship. But definitely in terms of pit stops, that’s an area in which we have already concentrated our efforts. But as a matter of fact, we need to keep working because there’s some important performance that is available through pit stops. And we have seen that the racing, if anything, is getting tighter and tighter.
“So what is the impact of a pit stop now gets more and more important. So definitely for the remainder of the season and also thinking about next year’s car, there’s work to do from a pit stop point of view, for what is the execution of the pit stop, but also the hardware such that executing a pit stop for our crew is just more straightforward and more natural. There’s still some interactions between the operator and the hardware that should be improved from a hardware point of view.”
Strategy, hard tyre –
Stella: “Well, the start on the hard was a little concerning because of the low temperature. And our car is not necessarily a car that gets the harder compounds immediately to bite on the ground. So we thought that the medium would have been a good tyre for the start, but also we were expecting the medium to last long enough. And it did last. And effectively, with Lando, we were in condition to stay out together with the hard starters. And we were in condition to try and find a safety car, which unfortunately didn’t happen.
“Otherwise, we could have jumped a few positions. I don’t think that being on the hard tyres, we could have overtaken Tsunoda, for instance. There was simply not enough pace advantage in the car to overtake cars that were at a similar pace. So I wouldn’t put it up to tyre choice or preference or sequence. I think the car was simply not fast enough.”
Where Norris stands –
Stella: “On Lando’s side, if we just look with the lens of the Drivers’ Championship, obviously this was an opportunity to gain some points, like possibly it might have been yesterday in qualifying, but at the same time, like I said, today we did not offer Lando a car that was in condition to progress through the field. And I think actually Lando had a good race. He stayed out of trouble, he was clean, but there was not enough pace. So, I think in the economy of a weekend, learning for Oscar and six points gained for Lando, which I think it’s not so straightforward that this could have been more, considering the competitiveness of the car. But above all, I would say there’s the Lando-Oscar, but as a team, Lando and Oscar, we also look at Max, because he’s definitely in the competition.
“And we look forward to races in which we can, if anything, try and push Max back again. As I said, I think Lando today had a strong race. He raced to the limit of the potential that was available in the car. I think no other driver in Lando’s car could have scored more. If anything, the responsibility to try and extract more performance today, or more points, may lay more on the team side, because with a fast, or the fastest pit stop, we could have given Lando the opportunity perhaps to attack Liam Lawson. But from a driving point of view, we are completely happy that Lando has delivered to the limit of what was available today in the car.”
Here’s Lando Norris losing out to Charles Leclerc: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-azerbaijan-grand-prix-leclerc-gets-the-jump-on-norris-for-p8-on-the-safety-car-restart.1843874558214650928
Here’s Oscar Piastri, Andrea Stella on Azerbaijan GP dip
Here’s Charles Leclerc on Lando Norris
Here’s how F1 Azerbaijan GP panned out