McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella spoke after the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP to explain what went wrong for Lando Norris in Baku. Norris jumped from fifth to second at the start. He then fell back through the field throughout the race. A lock-up at Turn 1 on lap 30 let the #10 and #12 through; a mistake before that at Turn 5 also allowed Lewis Hamilton to make a move.
His race ended at the lap 36 restart where Alpine’s Franco Colapinto locked up at Turn 1 and hit Pierre Gasly, who hit Norris. All three retired.
Stella on what went wrong for Norris at the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP
Stella identified several factors behind Norris’s difficult afternoon. He pointed first to a fuel injection issue that surfaced intermittently in qualifying and continued during the race, badly hurting the World Champion on the calendars longest straight.
He then addressed Norris’s driving inconsistencies.
“Yeah, so if we look at Lando’s race and the fact that he gradually went backwards, there’s a few reasons for that. We occasionally saw the same problem during the race, but not as systematic as in qualifying. It was a little bit intermittent, but definitely there’s a significant opportunity on the topic of fuel injection that we see occasionally also on Oscar’s car during the race,” stated Stella.
“So this is a topic that we should look at with high priority. In addition to that, Lando was overtaken by Verstappen, that was a quicker car. Lando was struggling a bit with the medium tyres.”
Stella drew a contrast between Norris and Piastri’s ability to manage Verstappen’s pressure, although the Aussie had the better soft tyres at that stage, before turning to the power unit and driving inconsistencies that compounded Norris’s afternoon.
“I mentioned Verstappen because he was on medium tyres as well as Lando, but he was faster. But credit to Oscar, Oscar managed to keep Verstappen behind. On Lando’s side we were struggling a little bit with power unit deployment and also Lando was having some inconsistencies in his driving.”
Stella on Norris’s lock-up and the top speed deficit
Stella pointed to the moment Hamilton got ahead of Norris at the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP as the turning point. Once Norris made the mistake at Turn 5, McLaren’s straight-line weakness made defending nearly impossible a minute later.
“When he was overtaken by Hamilton, he had a lock-up and he had a few mistakes that meant that cars behind were within range. And when they are within range, then we struggle to defend, which goes back to the point on top speed. I would say that for Lando this was one of the most difficult events in general that he has experienced in 2026.”
Stella on what McLaren must improve after the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP
Stella was clear that the responsibility for Norris’s 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP result did not fall on the driver alone. He said most of the opportunities for improvement sat on the team and car side, pointing to the need for a more raceable and predictable package.
“Something that we need to take away, looking at whatever can be improved. But I would say most of the opportunities lie on the team side and on the car side, because we need to be able to offer our drivers a car that is more raceable and just more consistent in terms of predictability,” Stella concluded.
