Norris admits McLaren are 'pretty pants' in Baku: 'A knife in the heart'

During a heavily interrupted FP1 session, Norris' MCL40 encountered bargeboard issues that limited the reigning world champion's running to just 14 laps. The Briton finished the first session in P14, 1.5s down on Russell, but while the 26-year-old racked up 22 laps in FP2, the deficit was still 1.4s after a P6 finish.

McLaren have arrived in Baku with a major upgrade package that includes new sidepods, engine cover, diffuser and floor edge, as previously reported by GPblog, but the new parts have seemingly not brought them much closer to Mercedes.

In both sessions, Norris did look set to score a chart-topping lap time before aborting his laps, but that is clearly of no consolation to a tetchy McLaren driver, who's described Friday's performance as "pretty pants."

"We are miles off,” Norris told F1 TV 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.”

Asked whether McLaren can do anything to close that deficit, Norris quipped back: "Do you think we can close 1.5s?" The Briton softened slightly: "I hope so. I have no idea. 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."

Norris had previously said he was not looking forward to racing around the Baku City Circuit in 2026, and was equally glum when asked whether he had found any confidence despite a difficult Thursday.

“I don’t really care how confident I am in the car; I just care about the pace,” Norris replied. "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.”