Lando Norris finished only seventh in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Lando Norris had to settle for seventh place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, stuck behind slower cars in the infamous DRS train and slowed further by another sluggish pit stop — the second in as many races. The result highlighted that McLaren still has key areas to improve. Team principal Andrea Stella, however, insisted that the slow stop did not compromise the final result, pointing instead to the car’s lack of consistency on a cooler track surface.
Norris misses out after Piastri’s incident
Norris was only able to bring home seventh, missing the chance to fully capitalize on his McLaren teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri’s early incident on the opening lap in Baku. The British driver found himself locked in a DRS train behind Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls and Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull. To make matters worse, McLaren then added to his frustrations with a 4.1-second pit stop.
Despite the setback, Andrea Stella dismissed claims that the stop cost Lando Norris a bigger opportunity to gain ground on Oscar Piastri. In reality, the Brit only managed to cut six points from Piastri’s advantage, with the Australian still holding a 25-point lead in the drivers’ standings with seven rounds to go.
“The pit stop itself didn’t make any difference because we would have ended up more or less in the same area as Charles Leclerc,” Andrea Stella explained. “For me, the most important thing was that the car wasn’t fast enough. With a quicker car, I think we could have overtaken and then had some clean air to fully exploit the potential.”
Pit stop execution needs improvement
Stella did admit, however, that McLaren needs to upgrade its pit stop hardware to ensure more reliable and consistent stops.
“When it comes to pit stops, it’s an area we’ve already been focusing on. But in reality, we must keep working, because pit stops now deliver significant performance and we’ve seen how races are becoming tighter and tighter. The impact of a pit stop is increasingly important,” he said.
“For the rest of the season, and also looking ahead to next year’s car, there’s still work to do in terms of pit stop execution and also the hardware, to make the operation smoother and more natural for our pit crew. At the moment, there are still some interactions between the operators and the equipment that need to be improved. We know we are not yet fully optimized from a hardware point of view, not because of lack of effort, but because you learn as you go. There is clear room for improvement in terms of equipment and tools, so that we can make life easier for the team in the pit lane.”
Constructors’ title now only a matter of time
McLaren missed out on the chance to mathematically secure the earliest constructors’ championship win in history at Baku. However, the team is expected to be crowned champions at the next round in Singapore. While the constructors’ title is essentially out of reach for all rivals, the drivers’ championship remains wide open, with Max Verstappen back in the hunt and threatening to disrupt the battle between the two papaya cars. Singapore will provide more answers in what promises to be a dramatic finale to the season.
Leave a Reply