‘Some drivers shouldn’t be in F1’ – Norris reflects on Baku clash that led to DNF

Lando Norris was less than impressed after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with the McLaren driver dissatisfied at both his own performance and an incident with Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly that prematurely ended his race.

The whole weekend at the Baku City Circuit was one to forget for Norris after a lock-up in Qualifying left him to start the race from P5. A decent start saw him gain a position from Isack Hadjar, but the Red Bull racer quickly fought back past, as did his team mate Max Verstappen.

From there, the reigning World Champion couldn’t keep up with McLaren’s rivals and lost out to Lewis Hamilton before locking up again, dropping behind Gasly and Kimi Antonelli as he rejoined the track.

The first Safety Car restart promised an opportunity to recover some ground, but Norris became a passenger when Colapinto failed to make the corner and made contact with the other Alpine, who was subsequently knocked into Norris at Turn 1.

All three had no choice but to retire due to the damage, leaving him to reflect: “I just was slow. I was struggling a lot on the straights. You saw how quickly everyone came past me…

“Just an impossible race out there for me from that side, straight-line speed, today.

“Hopefully we get that fixed for next time. Otherwise, I still made the mistake. At the end of the day, I just got taken out… just some drivers that shouldn’t be in F1, to be honest.”

It marked Norris’ first retirement since the Monaco Grand Prix and cut his streak of eight rounds in the points short, impacting what was already a slim chance of adding another World Championship to his list of achievements.

The Briton had been enjoying improved form prior to this round, having clinched victory in the Netherlands and Hungary as McLaren continued to take the fight to standings leaders Mercedes.

But the result in Baku left him less than enthusiastic about their potential across the rest of the triple header, which includes Formula 1’s return to Malaysia for the Bahrain Grand Prix, as well as a challenge under the lights in Singapore.

“We won two and should have won three of the last four races,” he admitted. “Plenty of positives, obviously not this weekend… not quick enough.

“We knew that. We’re going to be in for another tough few weekends, I imagine. Maybe Malaysia is a better one for us.”