McLaren’s Lando Norris spoke about certain issues that still need to be resolved and aspects that the FIA has improved within the 2026 regulations.
On Thursday before the Miami GP, last year’s world champion Norris discussed changes introduced in the 2026 season. The Brit was questioned about whether he thought F1 was doing a good job at balancing drivers’ and fans’ experience.
Norris: “I think we can still create even better racing”
The McLaren driver quickly summed up: “I mean, we just have to give our input, honestly. We want the fans to have a great time. We want ourselves to have a good time.”
Yet, Norris also noted drivers’ discomfort with the 2026 F1 regulations. “We also want F1 to be what we’ve always grown up seeing, which is just about our racing, which is not what we’ve had so far.”
He went on to explain why this year’s rules do not count as “good racing” and what he believes does.
“And having good racing is not necessarily having someone at 100% battery and having someone on zero. That’s not how proper racing should be done.
“It should be done by trying to allow cars to follow closer by having less weight, better tyres, more resilient to following issues and temperatures and things like that, not by implementing batteries and wings like all the stuff that we’re doing now.
“It can just be done in a slightly different way and that’s something that, as drivers, we’re all wishing for in the future. But because of the bigger picture, because you have manufacturers and partners and teams and some business involved, then some things are not so simple.
“But hopefully over the next… I’ll be in Formula 1 for a while and hopefully over the next five years or so things can go a little bit more back to normality and I think we can still create even better racing, honestly.”
Norris on yo-yo racing and karting similarities
The British driver was further asked about Russell’s comments stating that the previous regulation cars were better liked by drivers, but had fewer fans because of closer racing within the 2026 F1 regulations.
Norris responded: “Like George said, like go-karting. He gave the reference to go-karting and the yo-yo racing you get there. The thing is, in karting, you have no dirty air, you have no downforce. That is the most pure racing you can get.
“But you also don’t have an ERS pack that just does what it wants and batteries that do what it wants.
“Now we do have yo-yo racing. It’s a fact. You can’t even debate it.
“But we want it to be more like you have in karting in those early days, where you can follow on the guy’s bumper, you’re slipstreaming, you have 1-20 cars all in a big long line and you’re racing like that. That’s what we want. And that’s what we want as drivers.”
Norris on FIA refinements of the 2026 F1 regulations
Before the 2026 Miami GP, F1 introduced changes to the new regulations. The FIA, Team Principals, CEOs of Power Unit Manufacturers, and Formula One Management agreed on all refinements.
The changes focused on four main sections: qualifying, race, race starts and wet conditions. Overall, the key technical changes covered power deployment, improved safety, reduced energy management issues and aimed to create a better spectacle for fans and drivers.
So far, most drivers have avoided declaring the issue solved, but have welcomed the process and improved dialogue.
Before the 2026 Miami GP, Norris pointed out: “So what we want as drivers is also what will be better for the fans to see. It’s a business at the end of the day.
“So you have to balance the business side, which is obviously where we don’t know what others say.”
Still, he declared: “But we’re making progress for the FIA. I think they’ve done a good job in trying to improve things. The bigger things and the things we want more in the future are the things I want in karting.”
