The story all season has been who will win the F1 World Driver’s Championship between Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, or Max Verstappen? That question, though, has become even more unclear after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend wrapped up.
As a quick recap of the Papaya Teams’ weekend:
In Free Practice 2 both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri crashed.
In Azerbaijan Grand Prix Qualifying, Oscar Piastri crashed (Qualifying in 9th) and Lando Norris put in a disappointing lap (Qualifying in 7th).
Championship Leader, Oscar Piastri crashes on Lap 1. Lando Norris is unable to get around the Mercedes pair, Sainz’s Williams, Lawson’s Racing Bull, AND Tsunoda’s Red Bull – finishing in 7th.
At the beginning of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, when Oscar Piastri crashed on Lap 1, hopes were high for his teammate and championship rival Lando Norris. The pace of the McLaren just wasn’t there.
Lando Norris Struggled for Pace and Pit Stops
After an admittedly disappointing qualifying, Lando Norris’ race hinged on his ability to overtake the ‘slower’ cars in front of him based on the pace and performance of the McLaren cars this season. This was especially important after Piastri was left points-less post-crash.
For a majority of the race, Norris was stuck in a DRS train behind Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda. When asked about why this happened Norris didn’t think it had to do with pace.
“I don’t think we were bad, but I could barely keep up with Tsunoda and there were parts of the track where the Red Bull was just unbelievably fast, had no chance to keep up with him in some areas so we clearly struggled a little bit this weekend. The car didn’t fill us with a lot of confidence this weekend and I think that showed from probably both of our performances.”
Lando Norris, McLaren, 7th
The struggle behind the DRS train wasn’t the only fumble that Lando faced this weekend. When he boxed for new tires on Lap 38, McLaren gave Lando another slow stop, echoing back to their performance at the Italian Grand Prix.
Andrea Stella Disappointed with the McLaren Car
Lando Norris wasn’t fully to blame for a poor weekend and result for the team. McLaren Team Principal, Stella, remarked that ‘the team finished where they deserved to’ when asked about his seventh place result.
Stella’s tone was clearly extremely disappointed when asked about Norris’ performance at Baku today.
“With Lando, we simply didn’t have a fast enough car to overtake, so we spent the whole race stuck in traffic. The slow pit stop certainly didn’t help, but whether it was decisive for position, we’ll have to review. The car maybe had a bit more potential, but that should have been shown in qualifying yesterday, and we didn’t manage it.”
Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal
While admitting that their pit stop strategy could have been a factor – in hopes there was a late safety car to shake up the order, Stella made it clear that he is leaving the Azerbaijan Grand Prix disappointed with the team, the car, and Lando Norris.
The order those three factors are to be discussed behind closed doors, is yet to be determined.
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KAITLIN TUCCI
Kaitlin Tucci has been a fan of motorsport for close to a decade. Before joining On SI in 2025, she contributed heavily to the marketing and media efforts at FanAmp, a motorsports startup for which she was the Head of Marketing. She has contributed to a number of publications covering series such as Formula 1, IndyCar, IMSA, and more… Kaitlin graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with both a degree in Business/Marketing and Political Science. She works full time as a marketer at high-growth tech startups while spending her weekends immersed in the world of racing. Kaitlin was raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, but has lived in New York City for the past 5 years with her ‘giant chihuahua’ Willow. You’ll often catch Willow watching races alongside Kaitlin, but unfortunately she doesn’t have enough airline miles to join her at the track just yet.