Lando Norris has admitted that McLaren’s deficit to Mercedes in Azerbaijan was a “little knife in the heart” after the reigning Formula 1 world champion ended Thursday running in Baku around 1.5 seconds away from the benchmark pace.
McLaren arrived at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with an extensive list of upgrades for the MCL40, but the first day on track delivered a clear message: Mercedes looked extremely strong, while the rest of the field remained some distance behind. Norris is not fundamentally unhappy with how his car feels, but the outright pace has left him concerned.
Lando Norris says McLaren is ‘miles off’ Mercedes in Baku
McLaren’s upgrade list in Baku is extensive, with the team introducing significant changes across several areas of the car. The package is substantial enough that the updated MCL40 represents a major step in McLaren’s attempt to close on Mercedes.
Even so, Thursday practice suggested that the Woking team still has work to do. There is every chance that several teams were not showing their full potential, McLaren included. But the same will apply to Mercedes when qualifying arrives, making the size of the initial gap difficult to ignore.
The updated MCL40s made their track debut in Baku, and it is normal for a team to need time to understand a large package, analyse the data and optimise the set-up around new components. The drivers’ first impressions were not particularly negative, but the advantage enjoyed by the Mercedes W17s was far less encouraging.
“We’re miles off,” Norris said at the end of the day. “I mean, we’re up there, let’s say, relative to the others. We’re in the position we expected to be in, but we’re like 1.5 seconds off the pace, so we’re in pretty bad shape.”
Norris says McLaren does not feel bad despite huge pace gap
Asked whether McLaren realistically had enough performance available to close such a large deficit, Norris admitted he did not yet know.
“I have no idea, so we’ll see what kind of work we can do tonight. The car doesn’t feel that bad. It’s a little knife in the heart when you see how far off you are.”
The true picture over a single qualifying lap will only become clear when every team is forced to reveal its performance. McLaren has already demonstrated strong qualifying speed for much of the season, and Norris has repeatedly been able to extract competitive one-lap pace from the MCL40.
The greater concern is race pace. That is the area Norris believes still requires significant work before the remainder of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend.
“I don’t really care how confident I feel in the car,” Norris said. “I only care about the pace, and we’re not very fast.”
“So I don’t care what car I’m given, I drive it. I just want it to be quick, and at the moment it really isn’t. We’ll see what we can change for tomorrow.”
Rob Marshall says McLaren still needs to optimise new MCL40 package
McLaren technical chief Rob Marshall confirmed that more work is required before the team can fully exploit the extensive Baku developments.
“We still have a lot of data to collect and we clearly need to set the car up a little better,” Marshall said. “We’re getting a huge amount of data. It’s confirming what we thought we should be seeing.”
The challenge is made more complicated by the unusual characteristics of the Baku City Circuit, where performance depends heavily on the interaction between chassis efficiency and power unit behaviour.
“Baku is a particular circuit and I think these cars are very different this year. Maybe this is one of the circuits where it’s more difficult to make a precise judgement, because there are so many factors related to the power unit. And obviously that also contributes significantly to lap time.”
“So it’s essential to optimise that aspect in parallel with the work we do on the chassis. I don’t think we’ve found the right solution for either of those areas yet.”
Baku exposes McLaren as Mercedes sets the benchmark
On paper, Baku was always expected to be one of the circuits least suited to the MCL40’s characteristics. Mercedes, meanwhile, has established the W17 as the benchmark package of the 2026 season, making Thursday’s advantage particularly uncomfortable for McLaren.
There is still time for the Woking team to understand its new parts and find a better set-up overnight. McLaren’s development strength has repeatedly allowed it to improve significantly across a race weekend, and the latest McLaren developments underline how aggressively the team is continuing to push the MCL40.
But after Thursday, one question remains unavoidable: just how much can Norris and McLaren close the gap to Mercedes before qualifying?
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