Mercedes’ speed on Baku’s straights helped George Russell beat Oscar Piastri by eight-tenths of a second in qualifying, a gap that reflected several weaknesses in McLaren’s car and its execution. Lando Norris qualified 1.1 seconds behind Russell. McLaren left Azerbaijan without points after a weekend marked by limited pace, power-unit problems and errors by both drivers.

Mercedes had delayed its more significant upgrades until the next weekend’s Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, yet the Brackley team remained competitive on power-sensitive circuits such as Monza and Baku. Its power-unit package helped explain its advantage over Ferrari and Red Bull, but the large margin over McLaren, which uses the same power unit, required other explanations.

Russell gained time on Piastri through better energy deployment in sector two, then pulled away on Baku’s exceptionally long straight. His top speed there was as much as 10 kilometres per hour higher than Piastri’s. Russell also led a relatively calm race until two safety-car periods late in the event brought Max Verstappen into contention and set up a close finish.

Baku was a difficult circuit for McLaren’s MCL40. It continued a pattern seen in earlier McLaren cars: the car was less competitive through low-speed corners, which make up nearly all of the six-kilometre circuit. The high-downforce strengths that had helped McLaren win in Hungary and Zandvoort, and that should have given Norris another victory in Madrid, offered less benefit in Azerbaijan.

The team also struggled with aerodynamic efficiency on the straights. McLaren brought a set of upgrades intended to produce more efficient downforce across different corner types, but they could not overcome the car’s broader limitations at Baku. Team principal Andrea Stella said: “The upgrades worked well throughout the weekend, we added some lap time to the car. Somehow, we didn't see the effect of the upgrades because our car in general does not perform very well in these kinds of corners, so we would have needed a much bigger set to make a difference in Baku.”

McLaren’s gear ratios also contributed to its lower top speed. The team chose shorter ratios for the MCL40 at the start of the year. That gearing can help the car avoid shifting into lower gears in corners and may offer advantages on restarts, but it limits top-end speed on circuits such as Monza and Baku. GPS traces from GP-Tempo, comparing the drivers’ fastest qualifying laps, showed Piastri shifting up noticeably earlier than Russell.

McLaren technical director Neil Houldey discussed the trade-off earlier in the summer. “If we had to do it again, I think we would re-ratio to be closer to where Mercedes are,” he said. “There are some performance opportunities that we can take because the ratios are shorter. We end up shifting less into lower gears around corners, potentially on restarts, things like that.”

“But then when you're looking at the high-speed side, I think you'd probably take what the other teams have got. So it's a couple of compromises in either direction. It's a small lap time, but all these small little lap times add up to be some decent lap time performance.” McLaren chose not to use its one joker, the opportunity to make a mid-season gearing adjustment, and directed its resources elsewhere.

Stella said no single issue accounted for the gap. “It is very apparent that it is not a single factor,” he said. “Certainly, we've always talked quite openly and transparently that we need to improve the aerodynamic drag of the car. But at the same time there's a few factors which refer to our ratios, for instance we need to look whether we are on the right ratios to compete in circuits in which you have this sort of top speeds.”

He said McLaren had not optimized its power unit as well for the race as it had for qualifying. The team’s understanding of the Mercedes power unit and its collaboration with Mercedes HPP had improved since the start of the year, but some performance opportunities remained. “And at the same time when we look at the data and we compare with MGP, we see that our power unit was not optimised. I think while for qualifying we managed to exploit pretty much the most that was available in the power unit, there's a few items that we were not able to optimise, and we paid a price in the race.”

Norris had been in his best form yet over the summer, but he encountered problems of his own in Azerbaijan. McLaren found a power deficit during qualifying that it believed was linked to fuel injection. The problem returned during the grand prix, although it appeared less consistently. Stella said the team had also occasionally seen a significant fuel-injection issue on Piastri’s car during the race.

Norris struggled on medium tyres and was overtaken by Verstappen, whose car was quicker. Piastri, by contrast, managed to keep Verstappen behind. Stella said McLaren was also struggling with power-unit deployment on Norris’s car. He described inconsistencies in Norris’s driving, including a lock-up when Lewis Hamilton passed him and several mistakes that allowed cars behind to get within attack range. McLaren’s lack of straight-line speed then made it harder to defend.

Norris was angry after he became an unintended victim of a Turn 1 collision between Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and his McLaren team-mate Pierre Gasly. Before the safety car, Norris also went off at Turn 1, losing three positions and putting himself in a vulnerable position for the restart. Stella said the event was among the most difficult Norris had experienced in 2026. He said the team needed to examine what it could improve, with most opportunities on the team and car side, including making the car more consistent and predictable for its drivers.

Piastri also lost ground after locking up at Turn 1 while trying to keep Isack Hadjar behind. The incident cost him a possible podium, and he finished 13th. Combined with Norris’s problems, the lock-up left McLaren with no points from the weekend.

Stella said the result came from a combination of issues, mistakes and limitations in the car. “We had issues and some mistakes, but at the same time I think we paid for some fundamental limitations of our package in this kind of circuit,” he said. “We were not fast enough in the corners, but at the same time and mainly we were not fast enough in the straights. This continuously exposed our drivers to being attacked and having to spend their race watching the mirrors rather than thinking about how they can progress in the race.”

Based on reporting by Autosport.