Lando Norris doesn’t disagree with Max Verstappen on the comments he made about the F1 2026 cars and regulations, as he adds on motivation for the new season.
Red Bull’s Verstappen kick-started the debate around the F1 2026 cars and regulation during the first Bahrain test, as he termed it the regs as ‘Formula E on steroids’. He kept his word when asked in the second test, citing ‘free speech’.
In fact, he wants the battery to be removed from the power unit, to make the sport more Formula 1-like and take the Formula E route – he has nothing against the electric racing championship. Even though drivers are fine to compete, they do agree on certain points made by Verstappen, especially on energy recovery side.
Norris in agreement
McLaren’s Norris joked that the Dutchman can retire if he wants when he was told about the Red Bull driver’s comments during the first test. When pressed again in the second test, Norris sided with Verstappen and agreed with most of the comments the Dutchman made.
He noted that he didn’t want to sound negative from the get go and wanted to see how the drivers and media/fans would react to differing statements. He found the reactions to be amusing. It is not that he doesn’t wish to enjoy F1, he is taking on the challenge, but he agrees that the current cars are not as enjoyable to drive as last year’s and maybe not purest.
He knows that the FIA and FOM are doing their best to solve some of the shortcomings, but until then, he is up to the challenge. “I mean, there’s nothing wrong with a small tent [of drivers liking the regs],” said Norris in a Bahrain test press conference.
“No, honestly, I just wanted to say that, I didn’t want to complain about anything, I just wanted to say that and see what the reaction was of everyone, so it’s been quite an amusing week, seeing the reactions of everyone, and it certainly made a lot of people comment and say a lot of things, which has been pretty funny.”
Very different feeling
“But no, I just wanted to see everyone’s reaction, so it’s been amusing. The cars are very different. Are they enjoyable and as good to drive as last year? Absolutely not. Is it still a challenge and good fun out there? Yeah, I’m certainly not going to change my job for anything else, I still have fun and it’s still the job that I love to do. But it’s certainly very different.
“Is it as pure, is it as beautiful to drive as last year? Does it look as incredible? Yeah, definitely not, and I agree with Max on a lot of comments, probably most of the comments I agree with. But it’s not that I don’t have fun out there, so there’s two sides, I do agree with basically every other driver, because I think every other driver has made their comments pretty clear, I just didn’t want to come out into the media and complain to everyone on the first weekend back.”
Still having fun with new F1 cars
“I want to still enjoy my time and just say what I feel, but I had fun last week, I’ve still been having fun out there now, and I think we know as a championship and with the FIA and with Formula One, we’re trying to improve the car that we have now. Because it’s certainly not the purest form of racing and that’s what Formula One should be.
“A lot of the driving is focused on just trying to get the battery to work properly and less focused on how can you as a driver get everything out of the car, so I completely agree with a lot of the comments, I just wanted to see everyone’s reactions for me saying something opposite,” summed up Norris.
2026 F1 title defence for Lando Norris
The Brit will enter the new F1 season as defending champion but for him, he is not thinking too much about the defence or taking too much stress upon him. He feels confident about himself and his chances, but he is not taking too much on him that he has to do it.
“Honestly, I don’t think there’s a response, like, I mean, there’s a responsibility always in life, but I’ll do my best to defend it and continue it, but it’s a new season with loads of new challenges,” continued Norris.
“So, it’s not as simple as just continuing from last year and saying it’s the same thing again. At the minute, we have to, from what we see, improve the car quite a bit if we want to compete a bit more to be confident for the first race, but I feel confident, I feel better than I’ve ever done, certainly after last year and winning the championship last year, that’s given me the confidence.
“So it’s reassuring to know that I’ve done it once and therefore I believe I can do it again, so that’s a good thing. But it’s a long season and I’ll make sure I do my part, and together as a team, we’ll make sure we give ourselves the best opportunity to do it again,” summed up Norris, who wants to live the sport for his team and his people. If he can help them reap rewards, it will be satisfying for him.
No lack of motivation
There is no issue on motivation side as well. He loves to win and wants to win as well, but he wants to win for the team and people around him, that will be success for him.
“No, because my motivation is not, I guess it’s part of it, I love to win, I want to win, I want to stand on the top step but my motivation is not solely success,” he said. “So every time I go out and race, of course I want to win but my motivation to win is not success and solely relying upon holding the trophy or winning, whatever it may be.
“So, I don’t, maybe for some people I’m sure it’s easy to have, it’s easy to kind of rely so much upon the enjoyment of standing up there and those kind of things.
“But I love it, I’m sure every single driver loves to stand on the podium, to win, to celebrate but my motivation to work, to do well, to become better of course kind of starts with the vision of wanting to win. But at the end of the day, it’s my team and the people I have around me, they’re the people that I want to do well for, so as long as I have them then nothing changes for me,” summed up Norris.
