Norris: Deficit to Mercedes in Baku like ‘a knife in the heart’

Lando Norris has admitted that McLaren’s early pace deficit to Mercedes in Baku landed like “a knife in the heart”, with the reigning world champion struggling to see an obvious route back into contention after a bruising Thursday.

Norris arrived in Azerbaijan already wary of McLaren’s prospects on the high-speed street circuit given its lay-pout, but the reality revealed by the opening two practice sessions appears to have been even more uncomfortable.

While George Russell topped both Thursday sessions for Mercedes, Norris could manage only sixth in FP2, ending the day 1.484 seconds away from the benchmark, while teammate Oscar Piastri was further back in eighth position.

He did abort laps that appeared capable of improving his position, but even allowing for those compromises, the gap left plenty to worry about.

‘We are miles off’

Norris made little attempt to disguise his frustration when assessing McLaren’s position after FP2.

“Running… I mean, we are miles off,” he told F1TV after FP2.

“We’re up there, let’s say, we’re in the position we expected to be in. But I’m 1.5s off the pace. So, pretty pants.”

The scale of the deficit prompted an understandably blunt response when Norris was asked whether McLaren could realistically recover the lost ground.

“Do you think we can close 1.5s?” he said. “I hope so [there is progress to be made]. I have no idea [how much].

“We’ll see what work we can do tonight, the car didn’t feel that bad. So, yeah, it’s a knife in the heart when you see how far off you are.”

That final assessment was perhaps the most revealing. Norris did not describe the MCL40 as fundamentally undriveable; instead, the concern was that a car which felt reasonably acceptable was still nowhere near the pace required.

Confidence isn’t the issue

Norris also dismissed the idea that his concerns were rooted in a lack of confidence in the McLaren.

“I don’t really care how confident I am in the car; I just care about the pace,” he said. “And we’re not very fast. So, I don’t care.

“I drive whatever car I’m given. I just want it to be quick, and it’s not very quick at the moment. But let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

• Azerbaijan Grand Prix Free Practice 2 - Results

There were additional complications during the day, with Norris losing time in FP1 after a bargeboard problem forced McLaren to apply a temporary fix. When asked for more details, he offered little explanation.

“I don’t know much about it, honestly, so better to ask the team,” he concluded.

Oscar Piastri endured his own difficult Thursday, finishing eighth in FP2 behind Pierre Gasly.

For McLaren, the overnight task is therefore brutally simple: find performance.

Mercedes has opened up a gap that Norris clearly regards as alarming, and with qualifying looming, the reigning champions have precious little time to turn that “knife in the heart” into something less painful.

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