Lando Norris says McLaren is “quite a long way off” the pace after ending FP2 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix without a representative time.
Norris was 17th in the final reckoning after having his single attempt at a flying lap balked by Pierre Gasly through the super-fast Turn 18-19 kink leading onto the front straight, forcing him to back out.
Though his time wasn’t representative, the Briton said he’d seen enough from his first two sectors to know that McLaren hadn’t started the weekend in a competitive position.
“We’re quite a long way off,” he said. “I’m having to push way too much to try and get a lap time out of it.
“I think we have quite a lot to find, honestly, compared to Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. They’re all very similar, then there’s a 0.4s gap back to us — a lot of work for us to do.”
Norris pointed to teammate Oscar Piastri’s best lap being 0.499s off the pace as corroborating evidence on an afternoon Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes were split by just 0.066s in the top three positions.
“Clearly where Oscar was is kind of more where we are,” he said. “I think if we nail it, we’re just about there, but I’m sure [the other teams are] not even close to nailing it yet.
“People just love to believe that we’re the best everywhere, but we’re not. We’ve been doing a very good job so far, and I think other teams haven’t. We’ve been doing a better job than other teams.
“We’ve always known Ferrari are very quick here. I think with these kinds of track conditions Mercedes are going to be very quick — it’s just very slidy out there; I think we perform well at the higher-grip circuits.
“I’m just finding it difficult at the minute, but we’ll work hard tonight. The car’s still not bad. I’m sure we’ll still get a lap time out of it, but we’re not as clearly ahead as we have been at other races.”
Piastri was less bothered by his deficit to the front-runners, however, seeing promise in his long-run pace and his car’s potential over one lap.
“I think it’s been a decent day,” he said. “It’s a bit hard to know at the moment with the track evolving so much still, but our pace seems in the ball park, I would say.
“Ferrari look pretty strong. Red Bull look quick. Mercedes as well. I think at the moment anyone in the top four teams looks good.