Lando Norris is “playing catch-up” at the 2026 F1 Japanese GP, having been outqualified by McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in what he has called a “difficult” weekend.
The reigning world champion will start Sunday’s race in fifth after he set a lap time almost three tenths off the pace of teammate Piastri, and six tenths behind Mercedes polesitter Kimi Antonelli.
Norris: “Luck’s not been on my side” at 2026 F1 Japanese GP
Norris had struggled with a hydraulic leak issue through Friday’s FP2, and then Saturday’s FP3 was hurt by an ERS gremlin, which limited his run-time in both sessions. He completed just 13 laps in the latter session ahead of qualifying.
When asked in the print media pen if this was the reason he was slightly off the pace in qualifying, Norris responded that it was a “mix of things”.
“It’s not just [the missed laps],” he said. “It’s also that I’ve tried more things with the set-up, with the car and understood more things.
“It’s also that, it’s hard to quantify that amount. I’ve certainly been playing catch-up the whole weekend and even for tomorrow I’ve done no laps of high fuel, I’ve done no continuous laps.
“Certainly luck’s not been on my side so far but I feel like I was getting better and better in qualifying and understanding how I can push the car more. It’s just been difficult there.”
He continued: “I’m happy with the P5, the gap’s still quite big to the guys ahead, so it’s not like I’m totally satisfied. I think there’s things I should have done better and I didn’t do well enough, but otherwise I’m sure with more laps I would have improved.”
New regulations making things “difficult” for Norris at 2026 F1 Japanese GP
The F1 Japanese GP marks the third round of the 2026 season, following the introduction of new regulations that have brought new powertrain units. The units now have a hybrid system that is more reliant on electrical energy than previous generations.
As the drivers and teams continue to work with the new hybrid systems and learn what works best, Norris says that the more laps drivers can get in, the better.
“There’s only some places, as the grip went up, I felt like I just under-delivered and I under-drove,” he said.
“I wanted to improve in some areas and I needed to do more lifting here and more harvesting here, whatever it may be. If I’d just done more of those laps prior in the weekend I would have understood some of those things ahead of time. It’s difficult, it’s just so, so difficult.
“There’s so many things, it’s hard to quantify what and where and how much. If you ask anyone, ‘would you have wanted more laps?’, they’re not going to say no. It’s the way it is and I feel like we’ve still made a good job of what we’ve done this weekend.”
Norris: Driver mistakes “cost more than before”
He continued to discuss how small changes at the Suzuka track have added more complications to the mix.
“It’s still a new car and it’s a new track where the tarmac’s a lot grippier here. It’s a new tarmac as well, it’s a much quicker track so you have to drive the car quite differently to how we’ve driven the last few [tracks]. You see the mistakes people have been making, you know, into Spoon and things with the rear and it’s just not easy.
“Certainly now it costs more than before, not just as a driver but also to understand how the power unit works, to get the battery in the right way and then you know you have to lift more in places, which you have to then adjust with the setup because you have to lift more.
“There’s a lot of little things so, yeah, it’s certainly not all the gap today. Some of it’s just me not being on top form but it certainly costs more nowadays.”
Norris: New 2026 hybrid engines “hurt your soul”
Due to the new regulations, drivers now have to lift off the accelerator more in corners to harvest back as much energy as possible to feed back to the battery. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso stated drivers now have to drive around 50km/h (or 31mph) slower in high-speed corners to get the most out of the new cars.
Asked whether qualifying is still as enjoyable as previous seasons before the new regulations came in, Norris responded: “Certainly not. It still hurts your soul when you see your speed dropping so much. 56 kph down the straight.
“It still feels quick. It’s not like the lap times are miles off, you know, with the 26.9 horsepower last year. It’s a couple of seconds. Which is a lot, it’s also not a huge amount. So it still feels special.
“It still feels like it’s on each lap and you’re taking risks here and there and so forth. It doesn’t feel as amazing as last year. I don’t think any track will. But you get used to that.”
