The Briton harshly criticizes the incident with Colapinto and Gasly that left him out of the race. He acknowledges his own lack of straight-line pace but points out that the crash, caused by someone else's mistake, cost him valuable points for the championship.
Lando Norris left the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a mix of frustration and anger. The British McLaren driver who had arrived in Baku with the hope of continuing to close the gap in the championship after his victories in the Netherlands and Hungary saw how his race ended prematurely on the first lap after an incident with the Alpines of Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly; a crash that the world champion did not hesitate to describe as avoidable and that drew from him an unfiltered criticism towards some of his colleagues.
"I was just slow, I was struggling a lot on the straights. You saw how fast everyone was passing me, it was an impossible race for me from that side, the straight-line speed today" Norris declared, acknowledging his own limitations, however the Briton did not take long to point out those responsible for his retirement: "At the end of the day, they just took me out of the race, some drivers shouldn't be in F1 to be honest" he sentenced harshly.
The incident occurred after the first Safety Car restart, Norris who had lost positions to Verstappen, Hamilton and Antonelli, was about to try to recover ground when Colapinto failed in the braking of turn 1 and hit his teammate Gasly's car which in turn was projected against Norris's McLaren. The three drivers were out of the race due to the damage suffered and the Briton was left without options to score points.
The weekend in Baku had been complicated from the start for Norris, a lock-up in qualifying left him fifth on the grid and although he gained a position at the start, he soon lost ground to his rivals: "I wasn't fast enough, we knew we were going to have another couple of difficult weekends, I imagine. Maybe Malaysia will be better for us" acknowledged the Briton, who thus added his first retirement since the Monaco Grand Prix and cut a streak of eight consecutive races scoring points.
Despite the disappointment Norris wanted to maintain a positive perspective on McLaren's performance in the last races: "We won two and we should have won three of the last four races. Many positive aspects, obviously not this weekend... not fast enough" he stated. The Briton trusts that the team can recover its competitiveness in the next events although he warns that the triple header of Baku, Malaysia and Singapore will be demanding.
Norris's criticism of his colleagues reflects the frustration of a driver who has seen how his title aspirations move further away race after race, the Briton who arrived in Formula 1 with the ambition of becoming champion, knows that every point counts and that the mistakes of others can cost him very dearly.
His message is clear: in the elite of motorsport, there is no place for drivers who are not up to the circumstances.
The Baku race left a bitter lesson for Norris, but also a warning for those who in his opinion, should not be competing in the top category.
