🏁 Baku Breakdown: Cracks in McLaren’s Armor?
McLaren has had a 2025 season for the history books—12 wins in 17 races, a string of 1-2 finishes, and domination over rivals like Mercedes and Red Bull. Their MCL39 has been hailed as one of the best Formula 1 machines ever built.
But in Baku? The papaya juggernaut hit a bump.
Oscar Piastri crashed out on lap one, ending a 34-race point streak, while Lando Norris finished just P7, stuck behind a Red Bull car all afternoon. Suddenly, questions are swirling: is McLaren’s all-conquering car actually too difficult to drive?
🔧 "It Can Still Bite You" – Norris Gets Real
Lando Norris, usually calm and composed, didn’t mince words post-race:
“It can be unbelievably fast at times... but places like [Baku], it can still bite you if you go one step wrong.”
Norris explained that the car felt “on a knife’s edge”, with little confidence and unpredictability through corners. His qualifying was hampered by bad timing during a red-flag-heavy session, and even in clean air, he struggled to gain ground.
💥 Piastri’s Nightmare Weekend
Oscar Piastri’s race didn’t even last a full lap. After a tricky qualifying—where he crashed at Turn 3—he clipped the barrier at Turn 4 on Sunday, bringing out an early DNF. His troubles started way earlier: power unit issues in FP1, wall brushes in FP2 and FP3, and a general lack of rhythm.
It wasn’t just bad luck. The MCL39 demands precision, and Baku’s tight corners expose every weakness.
📊 McLaren’s Low Downforce Weakness
Team boss Andrea Stella confirmed what the drivers implied: McLaren struggles on low-downforce tracks like Baku and Monza. Even if the car is fast in theory, it can’t stay close enough in traffic to overtake.
“The car wasn't fast enough to stay close to the car ahead... so Lando spent the entire race in traffic,” Stella said.
This isn’t the first time it's happened. At Monza, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominated. In Montreal, Mercedes won, and McLaren were nowhere near the podium.
🧠 It's Not Just Speed—It's Handling
The MCL39 has proven to be lightning fast—when conditions are right. But its corner-entry balance is finicky. The car prefers a calm, passive entry into turns, but drivers like Norris naturally attack the entry hard. That mismatch leads to errors, lockups, and inconsistent performance.
Norris admits he had to change his driving style to adapt to the car—and even then, it’s “not easy to drive.”
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🔮 What’s Next?
McLaren still leads the championship comfortably and could seal the Constructors' Title at the next race in Singapore. But the Azerbaijan GP exposed real weaknesses in the MCL39—and if McLaren wants to carry this dominance into 2026, they’ll need to improve the car’s driveability on low-downforce tracks.
Norris put it best:
“We've had an amazing season… but we clearly have things that are not good enough, and we have to keep working on them.”