Lando Norris slammed for Azerbaijan GP showing: “Where was the fire?”

Former F1 team manager Peter Windsor has slammed Lando Norris for his performance at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, questioning “where was the fire?”.

Norris was unable to capitalise on Oscar Piastri’s torrid weekend in Baku.

The Briton could only finish seventh, reducing Piastri’s lead by six points.

Had McLaren taken a 1-2 finish, with Norris leading, he’d have reduced Piastri’s lead by a further point.

Norris has insisted it wasn’t a missed opportunity and that he couldn’t do much more given McLaren’s pace.

Windsor has hit out at Norris for his timid display, questioning the lack of “aggression”, particularly given what happened to Piastri.

“To have a new set of mediums was a big advantage against drivers like, Russell, Antonelli, Sainz, Lawson, Tsunoda, Leclerc and, of course, Max Verstappen. But despite that, he got beaten by Max to the tune of over 30 seconds. Lando beat both Ferraris, but he was slow at the restart,” Windsor said. 

“He got past the Ferraris, but that’s where it ended. Can you imagine Verstappen in that situation, sitting there for the rest of the race, and watching it just disappear like that, in a very, very good race car, with the benefit of a new set of medium tyres? That’s what happened with Norris. Where was the fire, where was the aggression?”

“I cannot imagine Max in that car, in that McLaren today, with the benefit of those tyres, with the benefit of the downforce that that car has, not doing anything with it, which is basically what Lando did. Here I am sort of kind of criticising Lando.”

Piastri made an “extraordinary” mistake

It was a horrendous weekend for Piastri.

He crashed out in qualifying at Turn 3, leaving him ninth on the grid.

Piastri then jumped the start before his McLaren went into anti-stall.

This put him at the back of the grid through the opening sequence of corners.

Piastri then got caught out by the lack of grip, locking up and spearing into the barriers on the opening lap.

Windsor described Piastri’s race-ending mistake as a “ridiculous error”.

“Two virtually identical accidents, one on Saturday, one on Sunday. His race began right behind Lando on the grid. He was P9 by jumping the start. In these days where you do nothing but watch the lights, it was an extraordinary mistake. 

“And I guess because of that, flustered at the back of the field now, Oscar just went for it. An absolutely ridiculous error, particularly after doing virtually the same thing the day before.”