In the final laps of the 2026 F1 Japanese GP, McLaren‘s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton battled for fifth. Norris ultimately claimed the position and finished the race in fifth. However, the McLaren driver later admitted that he had no intention of overtaking Hamilton during the early stages of their battle on track. He went on to explain that the battery deployment forced him to overtake, leaving him vulnerable to Hamilton reclaiming his position.
Norris explains how automatic deployment impacted his battle with Hamilton at the 2026 F1 Japanese GP
At one point during their multi-lap battle at the 2026 F1 Japanese GP, Norris appeared to use electric boost to close the gap between himself and Hamilton, which allowed car #4 to pass the Ferrari driver into the final chicane for fifth. However, the 26-year-old was soon passed by Hamilton into Turn 1 on the start of the following lap.
Norris later shared that he did not intend to make the move on Hamilton, but was forced to. He added that his power unit had decided to deploy the full battery power. The reigning champion went on to explain how and why this happened.
According to Norris, he had lifted off the throttle into the 130R corner to avoid making contact with Hamilton ahead. However, due to the 2026 F1 regulations, when Norris had lifted off the throttle, his power unit had fully deployed its electrical boost when he got back on the accelerator.
“Yes, so it’s simply that there’s a rule within the regulation, let’s say, that in a perfect situation, like by this time I got to 130R, the battery had already tapered off. And effectively, I would have wanted to just come off the throttle and go back on and have then just that same amount of power. But because of how the rules apply, once you’ve lifted, and I had to lift, otherwise I would have crashed into him. And you reapply the throttle, the battery fully reinstates itself, and I had 350 kilowatts back on top.”
Norris expresses frustration as battery deployment left him defenceless against Hamilton
The Briton continued saying that due to the full deployment of his battery, he was unable to defend his position on the home straight due to having none left.
“Because I had 350 kilowatts by the time I got to the last corner, I was easily ahead, and it just wasted a load more, say, all my battery. So it’s just inevitable that he was then going to come back past, because I literally had 5% of my battery coming out the last corner, and you need like 45 at least to get halfway down the straight. Just little things like that.”
The McLaren driver also expressed his frustration towards the situation and stated that he could not “really do something at that current time” on track. Norris added that if it were not for the unintentional overtake, his battle with Hamilton during the closing stages of the 2026 F1 Japanese GP would have been much shorter.
“There’s a lot of little things every now and then that you cannot really do something at that current time and when you’re going that quickly to stop any of that happening, which in my case, like I would have passed him even if I didn’t have any battery reinstate itself, but I would have had 25% more battery than what I had, but because of what the ruling is there, it just wastes my battery, and then I couldn’t even defend.
“There was no point of trying to defend. So those are the moments that are just like, ‘why the hell did that happen’? But it’s just the way it is, it’s what we have to deal with.”
