SHANGHAI, China – Lando Norris has expressed that it will no longer be possible to judge who is the boldest driver in Formula 1, because the sport has created cars that require a driving style that “none of us dreamed of doing”.
The new and controversial F1 rules have led to engines with a 50-50 split between combustion and electric energy, which has put a great emphasis on energy recovery and battery use.
Pilots must now recover energy by slowing down in corners, which generated a worryingly inanimate spectacle in the Australian Grand Prix qualifying last week.
Max Verstappen has already compared the cars to Formula E, a fully electric series, but “with steroids.” During the press day of the Chinese Grand Prix, he joked that his best practice now is to play Mario Kart.
Fernando Alonso also suggested that some of the most iconic curves of F1 have now lost their essence.
“There were always curves where the driver had to be brave and exceed their limits,” said Alonso, referring specifically to Japan’s legendary high-speed 130R curve. “That no longer exists; you use Suzuka’s ‘esses’ to charge the battery. It’s a different challenge, it’s still fun, you love to race, but I grew up in the other one, the one of taking risks in the curves, and I prefer it”.
Fernando Alonso
When asked about Alonso’s comment a few hours later, Norris agreed.
“You’re driving the power unit, you’re not driving the car to the absolute limit,” Norris said. “It’s not like, ‘go and drive the car as fast as possible.’ That’s not how it works.”
“It’s a very different driving style that’s needed. Basically, forget everything you’ve done and restart.”Lando Norris ha dicho que ningún piloto soñó con conducir los actuales coches de F1.Norris used the Pouhon section of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit to illustrate his point.
“I think you can still make a difference as a driver by driving the power unit the right way, but not necessarily by driving the car in a much better way. You’re not going to go into Pouhon now and see who has the most ‘balls’. You’re just going to see who can lift off at the right point and use the amount of throttle you have to use, who doesn’t use the energy, who doesn’t use the battery and that kind of thing.”
Norris said that the new generation of drivers is far from what he dreamed of racing when he was a child.
5 questions about the new F1 regulations before China
2026 Chinese Grand Prix: F1 race and sprint start times, how to watch
When asked if the role of the drivers has been diminished with the new machinery, Norris replied: “I don’t think so. It’s just been altered quite a bit, I think.”
“He went from seeing how you can optimize every millisecond of the car itself and purely from the driver, the car, forgetting about the engine because that was always pretty good for everyone, let’s say. It was just who could get the most out of the car that day. That was all.”
“You’re driving as you’ve always driven your whole life, which is accelerator, brake… and generally more accelerator and less brake. I think, for the first time in our lives, basically, it’s forgetting everything you’ve learned in F4, F3, F2 and driving it in a completely different way. The fact is that the driver can still have a big impact and can certainly have a big impact on driving the power unit the right way.”
“Simply, that’s not what any of us have grown up doing. It’s probably also not something any of us have dreamed of doing, but that’s the current situation. George [Russell] has also done a very good job of understanding all these things and still deserves credit for optimizing the package he has and understanding these things potentially better than others.”
“So the driver can still make a big difference and I think understanding how you can maximize the car itself and the power units together is in that next step, but right now we just need to try to optimize one and then be able to switch our focus to the other.”
One of the important factors that pilots have complained about is the method now needed to recover battery energy.
F1 cars rely on the kinetic energy created when braking to recirculate energy in the battery, which can then be used as a power boost on the lap.
Norris said that adapting to that style has taken some time.
“It’s a pretty strange feeling in certain places to accelerate as little as possible when you just want to put your foot down, because that’s what it should be more about,” Norris said.
Lando Norris
“And having to do such big ‘lift-and-coasts’ in some corners, which is also not something we have grown up with or wanted to do, but it is the situation we are in now due to the rules we have. So, as much as some drivers may not be happy with the way you have to drive a Formula 1 car today, it’s still Formula 1 and you still have to do your best, so it is what it is.”
