Formula 1 has not gone far enough with the changes introduced for the 2026 regulations, according to Lando Norris.
The FIA made several adjustments ahead of last weekend’s Miami Grand Prix to address driver concerns, but Norris said those tweaks still fall short.
“It’s a small step in the right direction, but it’s not to the level that Formula 1 should still be at yet,” the world champion said.
Norris enjoyed his most competitive weekend of the season in Miami, winning the sprint from pole position and coming close to taking the grand prix victory, ultimately finishing second to Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Despite that performance, Norris remains particularly unhappy with how the new power units affect car behaviour at the limit. He said drivers still have to hold back over a single flying lap or risk being penalised by their power units for attacking corners too aggressively.
“We said yesterday, still in qualifying, if you go flat-out everywhere and you try pushing like you were in previous years, you still just get penalised for it. You still can’t be flat-out everywhere,” he explained.
“It’s not about being on as early on throttle everywhere. You should never get penalised for that kind of thing and you still do.”
Not everyone in the sport agrees that drivers should be able to push flat-out to the extent Norris expects. Still, he doubts the issue can be resolved without major changes to the power unit concept, which was designed to draw roughly equal power from the combustion engine and the battery.
“Honestly, I don’t really think you can fix that,” Norris said. “You just have to get rid of the battery. Hopefully, in a few years, that’s the case.”
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem indicated over the weekend that F1 could move to replace the current power units four years after their introduction—one year earlier than planned—if enough engine manufacturers agree.
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