Lando Norris cites Oscar Piastri's Baku crash as evidence of his year-long claim about McLaren

Lando Norris shared his honest reaction to teammate Oscar Piastri's Lap 1 crash at F1's 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which turned out to be a disastrous race weekend for McLaren. The Briton used his teammate's crash to cement his claim about how they have had a tough car to drive all season.

McLaren had been the dominant force throughout the first half of the season. However, Norris had shared at the beginning of the season that the MCL39 didn't suit his style and that the car was "difficult to drive."

At Baku this weekend, his claim seemed to come true in its ultimate form. Oscar Piastri crashed in Q3 in qualifying and started ninth on the grid. On Sunday, the championship leader had a false start to the race and then immediately dropped the clutch. Anti-stall came into play, but by then, all the drivers behind him overtook him, and he was dead last before Turn 1.

But a bigger disaster was to come, as Piastri locked up in Turn 3 and went straight into the barriers, prematurely ending his race. When Lando Norris was asked about his teammate's horror show, he replied:

"What do I know... I'll focus on myself. Oscar is an incredible driver, so I doubt it will do anything. With what happened yesterday in a new car and I don't know what happened today, to be honest. I don't think people realize how easy it is to make mistakes here, but I think it just shows our car, not easy to be up there."

Max Verstappen won the race with a 13-plus-second lead over George Russell, and Carlos Sainz rounded up the podium, giving Williams its first F1 podium in four years.

Lando Norris mentioned how McLaren wasn't as quick as Red Bull at Baku, before re-emphasizing his point of the MCL39 being a tough car to drive:

"The mistakes Oscar's made and I've made just prove that it's not an easy car to drive, still. It can be unbelievably fast, but places like here and other tracks, it could still bite you if you put one step wrong. And that's what we're trying to work on."

Oscar Piastri felt McLaren had a "messy weekend" at the Azerbaijan GP and took ownership for his mistakes that led to his first DNF of the season.

Lando Norris 'doesn't care' how people perceive his failure at Baku

Lando Norris at the F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan - Source: Getty

Lando Norris didn't mince his words after finishing in an uncharacteristically low P7 at the Azerbaijan GP. The Briton could've finished in the Top 5 if not for a slow 4.1-second pit stop, which let two drivers pass him just after Turn 1.

Towards the end, he was stuck behind Yuki Tsunoda, who in turn, was stuck behind Liam Lawson. The Racing Bulls driver showed excellent racecraft to keep his Red Bull successor behind. However, Tsunoda remained within a second of Lawson, and the DRS helped him fend off Lando Norris.

"I'm doing the best I can in every race" Norris said post-race (via Motorsport). "If you look at that, every race I finished second or worse this year was an opportunity lost. I don't really care how people look at it. Of course, I needed to do better yesterday but we went out first. This was just our decision, and we paid the price for that."

Max Verstappen's win reduced his gap to championship leader Oscar Piastri from 95 to 69 points. McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella admitted that the Red Bull driver is now a threat to both his drivers in the drivers' championship.

Edited by Yash Kotak