Lando Norris conceded he and Oscar Piastri were 'bitten by Baku',
underlining the fact their seemingly two-way F1 drivers' title
fight cannot be taken for granted. Championship leader Piastri
suffered a horrendous weekend in Azerbaijan, crashing in qualifying
and the race, albeit suffering minimal damage to his advantage in
the standings as Norris also struggled. The Briton started and
finished seventh, closing the gap to Piastri from 31 points to 25,
with 199 to play from the remaining seven grands prix and three
sprints. With Max Verstappen completing back-to-back victories for
the first time in 15 months, the four-time F1 champion is 69 points
behind Piastri and 44 adrift of Norris, and cannot theoretically be
discounted. "People have caught up," said Norris, speaking to Sky
Sports F1 . "Red Bull brought upgrades last weekend [in Italy], so
they are clearly doing well, and their race pace is strong. "But
they still won plenty of races this year. It's not a surprise.
They've improved in some areas. They're a winning team for the last
however many years. We knew they could be a threat. "We know that
some of these tracks are not going to be our best, but it also
wasn't our cleanest weekend. So, yeah, things we want to do
better." McLaren 'still not an easy car to drive' – Norris Norris
recognised he had a golden opportunity to eat into Piastri's lead,
yet he maintains he did all he could in the circumstances . The
25-year-old insisted that all he can do is continue to focus on
himself, rather than assess what happened to Piastri, and do what
he can in the remaining races, additionally appreciating McLaren
will again not have it all their own way at some of those. "Oscar
is an incredible driver, so I doubt it will do anything," said
Norris. "I think people realise how easy it is to make mistakes
around here. "It shows our car is not easy to get up there. I don't
think we were quite as quick as the Red Bull, even following [Yuki]
Tsunoda. There were times I was like, 'No chance we can be as quick
as them'. So Red Bull is doing a good job. "We're struggling in
some of these lower downforce circuits still. Like Vegas, I think
we're going to struggle again. "But we still have our fair share of
doing well and very promising performances. We just keep focused,
keep doing what we're doing, keep trying to extract everything
after [making] fewer mistakes than we probably made this weekend.
"But I think the mistakes Oscar made and I made just prove it's not
an easy car to drive still. It can be unbelievably fast at times,
places like here and other tracks, it can still bite you if you
just put one foot wrong. "That's what we're trying to work on. It's
difficult to improve, but, yeah, it can bite. It bit me this
weekend, and it bit Oscar."
underlining the fact their seemingly two-way F1 drivers' title
fight cannot be taken for granted. Championship leader Piastri
suffered a horrendous weekend in Azerbaijan, crashing in qualifying
and the race, albeit suffering minimal damage to his advantage in
the standings as Norris also struggled. The Briton started and
finished seventh, closing the gap to Piastri from 31 points to 25,
with 199 to play from the remaining seven grands prix and three
sprints. With Max Verstappen completing back-to-back victories for
the first time in 15 months, the four-time F1 champion is 69 points
behind Piastri and 44 adrift of Norris, and cannot theoretically be
discounted. "People have caught up," said Norris, speaking to Sky
Sports F1 . "Red Bull brought upgrades last weekend [in Italy], so
they are clearly doing well, and their race pace is strong. "But
they still won plenty of races this year. It's not a surprise.
They've improved in some areas. They're a winning team for the last
however many years. We knew they could be a threat. "We know that
some of these tracks are not going to be our best, but it also
wasn't our cleanest weekend. So, yeah, things we want to do
better." McLaren 'still not an easy car to drive' – Norris Norris
recognised he had a golden opportunity to eat into Piastri's lead,
yet he maintains he did all he could in the circumstances . The
25-year-old insisted that all he can do is continue to focus on
himself, rather than assess what happened to Piastri, and do what
he can in the remaining races, additionally appreciating McLaren
will again not have it all their own way at some of those. "Oscar
is an incredible driver, so I doubt it will do anything," said
Norris. "I think people realise how easy it is to make mistakes
around here. "It shows our car is not easy to get up there. I don't
think we were quite as quick as the Red Bull, even following [Yuki]
Tsunoda. There were times I was like, 'No chance we can be as quick
as them'. So Red Bull is doing a good job. "We're struggling in
some of these lower downforce circuits still. Like Vegas, I think
we're going to struggle again. "But we still have our fair share of
doing well and very promising performances. We just keep focused,
keep doing what we're doing, keep trying to extract everything
after [making] fewer mistakes than we probably made this weekend.
"But I think the mistakes Oscar made and I made just prove it's not
an easy car to drive still. It can be unbelievably fast at times,
places like here and other tracks, it can still bite you if you
just put one foot wrong. "That's what we're trying to work on. It's
difficult to improve, but, yeah, it can bite. It bit me this
weekend, and it bit Oscar."
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