Lando Norris has rubbished suggestions that he has missed an opportunity to significantly close down the gap to Formula 1 world championship leader Oscar Piastri in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Norris finished seventh in Baku, meaning he is now 25 points behind McLaren team-mate and title rival Piastri, who crashed on the opening lap to cap off a mistake-riddled weekend.
The Baku event included Piastri qualifying only ninth after crashing in Q3, but Norris achieved just two better on Saturday after completing an early lap, with everybody else subsequently improving due to track evolution.
Norris is therefore still positive having gained six points on his rival, pointing out it could have been much worse as the season approaches its final seven rounds.
“I’m doing the best I can in every race,” said Norris, who could have finished higher had it not been for a slow 4.1s pitstop. “If you look at that, every race I finished second or worse this year was an opportunity lost. I don’t really care how people look at it.
“Of course, I needed to do better yesterday but we went out first. This was just our decision and we paid the price for that. I could have done that.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images
“I also could have ended up in the wall and gone long and something worse happened. I felt like I was close to maximising today. It didn’t maybe look like it from the outside but we struggled with the pace.
“We weren’t too optimistic about our pace today. Clearly, we struggled a little bit. I don’t think the pace is bad, it’s just too difficult to overtake.
“I’m doing the best I can. I know I’ve still got a lot of points to make up against a pretty good driver, an incredible driver. I just need to keep my head down.”
Norris showed promise in practice, having topped FP1 and FP3, so he reckons it would be a different conversation had qualifying not been so hectic with six red flags and threats of rain.
He added McLaren still didn’t have the pace of eventual winner Max Verstappen, as the Red Bull driver dominated from pole ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
“I don’t think they were big struggles,” said Norris. “I think on ultimate pace we were still not bad this weekend. I was still quick in FP1, FP2, FP3 and so forth.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, George Russell, Mercedes, Carlos Sainz, Williams
Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images
“I think if it was a normal quali, yes. I think the tricky conditions, the water yesterday, the little bit of rain going up first on track, all added up to making it a worse weekend. Our position today, I think if I started second, I think I would have finished second.
“I don’t think we had the pace of Red Bull, honestly. That was very, very clear. I think just the lower-downforce tracks, we still seem to struggle.
“We still don’t have the confidence we need. It can be quick, we’re just not able to repeat it as often as we need to and as often as the Red Bull, for example.
“We’ve had an amazing season, don’t get me wrong, but we clearly have things that are not good enough and we have to keep working on them.”
It was Verstappen’s fourth win of the year, including his second on the bounce, so Norris reckons people need to calm down and not expect McLaren to win every race.
“It’s not often that they’re slow,” said Norris of Red Bull. “So I think people need to stop being so surprised that they’re quick.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
“Max was winning races already at the beginning of the year, he could have won round one, I think he was pretty close to winning round two.
“The whole season they’ve been quick, the Red Bull has been good, they brought some upgrades to Monza which seems to have helped them improve even more.
“So, not a surprise, I think we know that they’re an incredibly strong team and have one of the best drivers ever in Formula 1, so we expect nothing less.
“They’re going to make our life difficult I think for the rest of the season but we also know from our side, we struggled a bit here, Monza clearly we’re not quick enough.
“We’ve made improvements but things where the Red Bull have been so good and dominant in the past, they still have and we don’t.
“Today when I was following the Red Bull, there was clearly some areas where they were just another level to us and we need to understand why.”
