Bernie Collins spotted ‘costly’ Lando Norris data that explains his disappointing Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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McLaren driver Lando Norris might look back at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as a key turning point if he fails to win the championship this year.

Lando Norris entered the Azerbaijan Grand Prix 31 points behind teammate Oscar Piastri.

When Piastri’s McLaren was lodged in the barrier during qualifying, Norris suddenly had the perfect opportunity to close that gap in the drivers’ championship.

However, Norris failed to deliver on his final flying lap and had to settle for starting the race in seventh.

The 25-year-old took the chequered flag on Sunday in the same position that he started, with Max Verstappen closing the gap in the standings with his second win on the bounce.

Norris commented on Piastri’s nightmare weekend, suggesting that he was still an ‘incredible’ driver even after making a selection of uncharacteristic mistakes.

McLaren tried to run Norris long on his first stint to try and overcut many of his rivals who were stuck in a DRS train.

However, studying Norris’s performance after the race, pundit Bernie Collins spotted something in his data that might explain his lack of progress.

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Lando Norris suffered from ‘costly’ slow pit stop that ruined his Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Collins was speaking on Sky Sports F1 (21/9 2:20 pm) in the aftermath of the race in Baku, and reflecting on Norris only finishing P7, she said: “Lando, I think, when I quickly looked at the data that we had on the pit wall, Lando on that pit stop, should have come out ahead of Leclerc and Tsunoda, and then he’d missed the opportunity to undercut Lawson.

“So, actually, even without any other overtakes, he should have been P5 with that slow pit stop.

“So, it was very costly. We look at it as two seconds, but you can’t just take two seconds off his finishing time.

“And I think he would have had a much better chance of [catching] Antonelli and Carlos Sainz if he had been ahead of Lawson.

“So, I think McLaren have got to look at that pit stop and think, that was really, really detrimental to their day and more worryingly, that’s the second week now that they’ve had a slow pit stop in a row.

“That’s something they need to get on top of. Obviously, the constructors’ looks sewn up this year, but next year they need to get on top of it.”

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Jamie Chadwick thinks McLaren face an ‘unsettling’ reality after nightmare Baku weekend

Joining Collins in analysing why Norris’s slow pit stop cost him far more than the two additional seconds that he was stationary was Jamie Chadwick.

Chadwick spoke about McLaren’s unexpectedly poor weekend and explained: “It’s tricky because this weekend, it feels a little bit to me like we never really saw what pace McLaren actually even had.

“In qualifying and then in the race, we never really saw what they were capable of, which is obviously it flattered Red Bull and the pace that they potentially have, but it creates a bit of an unknown for the rest of the year.

“And I think that’s going to give a bit of an unsettling feeling within McLaren, potentially, as actually, do we have the pace advantage that we’ve had all year still? Has this weekend just been an off weekend?

“Or, have we lost that, and we’ve got a real fight until the end of the year?”

McLaren only needed to outscore Ferrari by nine points to clinch the constructors’ championship in Baku, and considering Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc only finished eighth and ninth, it highlights how poor Andrea Stella’s team were that they couldn’t seal the title.

Stella admitted after the race that Verstappen was definitely a threat to their drivers in the championship with seven Grand Prix weekends remaining.

McLaren need to get to the bottom of why they’re suddenly suffering with slow pit stops, otherwise it could continue to hamper Norris and Piastri going forward.