Lando Norris defends McLaren despite key F1 flaw being exposed

Lando Norris has defended McLaren's poor performance in the
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, despite a flaw with the dominant MCL39 being
exposed. McLaren's hopes of landing the 2025 F1 constructors'
championship with a new record seven races remaining were dashed in
Baku after Norris could only finish seventh and championship leader
Oscar Piastri crashed out on the first lap, after also crashing in
qualifying.  Instead, Red Bull's Max Verstappen galloped to a grand
chelem, his second straight win to reduce Piastri's lead to 69
points, having taken 40 points out of the Australian since the
Dutch GP. McLaren has struggled to compete with Red Bull in the two
previous races, in Italy and Azerbaijan, both of which feature low
downforce characteristics, with the McLaren also struggling at
venues such as Las Vegas in 2024.  Reflecting on the weekend,
Norris felt that the team was still struggling with its low
downforce configuration, and had areas of the car "which are not
good enough." "I don't think there were big struggles, I think on
ultimate pace, we were still not bad," Norris told media, including
RacingNews365.  "We were quick in FP1, FP2, FP3 and so forth. I
think it was a normal qualifying, yes, there were tricky
conditions, the little bit of rain, and coming out first on track
all added up to making it a worse weekend.  "If I had started
second, I would have finished second. We didn't have the pace of
the Red Bull; that was very clear, and just at the lower downforce
tracks, we still seem to struggle. "We still have the confidence we
need, and can be quick, we're just not able to repeat it as often
as we need and as often as the Red Bull.  "We've had an amazing
season, don't get me wrong, but we clearly have things which are
not good enough, and have to keep working on."