The McLaren driver blasts the new regulations as power unit disparities favor Mercedes, urging officials to ditch heavy electrical systems for more authentic, driver-focused wheel-to-wheel racing.
Lando Norris is the reigning Formula 1 World Champion, but his 2026 title defense has been anything but comfortable. Through the opening races of the new season, the Briton has been unable to mount a meaningful challenge for the top of the Drivers' standings.
Mercedes and their dominant power unit have established a performance advantage that McLaren — and virtually every other team on the grid — have so far been unable to bridge. Some observers have suggested that drivers within the Mercedes camp have been reluctant to push for regulatory changes, given that any significant revision could erode the advantage the Silver Arrows enjoy with their current engine.
Norris has no such interest in defending a formula that is costing him ground week after week. After the Miami Grand Prix, he made his position perfectly clear to the Press: "It's a small step in the right direction, but it's still not at the level where F1 should be. We said in qualifying that if you go everywhere and you're pressing like you were in previous years, you still get penalized for it. You still can't be everywhere. It's not about being as early on the throttle everywhere."
"You should never be penalized for it, and you still are. Honestly, I don't think you can really fix that — you just have to get rid of the battery. So hopefully in a few years that will be the case," he added.
What did Lando Norris's teammate Oscar Piastri say about the 2026 F1 cars?
Oscar Piastri, Norris's partner at McLaren, also shared sharp observations with the media in Miami Gardens. For the Australian, the race offered his most complete hands-on experience yet with the full intensity of wheel-to-wheel racing under the new formula — and what he found left him with a complex mix of reactions.
"The races are basically exactly the same. Today was my first proper experience of overtaking people and having to defend myself, and it's quite wild, to be honest. At one point on my dash I could see George [Russell] was a second behind me, and he managed to overtake me by the end of the straight," he said.
"It's just a bit random. The closing speeds are enormous, and trying to anticipate that as the defending driver is incredibly hard to do — and for the overtaking driver too. I wasn't so happy with one of the moves George made, but I found myself almost making the same move about five laps later just because the closing speed is so enormous".
"So from that side of things, not much has changed. I think the collaboration between the FIA and F1 has been good, but there are only so many things you can change with the hardware we have. So there are still some changes needed for the future, for sure. The big question is how quickly we can do it," he concluded.