Reigning world champion Lando Norris has delivered a blunt assessment of Formula 1’s 2026 regulations, saying the only real fix is to eliminate the hybrid battery system entirely.
Speaking after finishing third at the Miami Grand Prix, Norris welcomed recent energy deployment tweaks aimed at reducing lift-and-coast behavior in qualifying but argued the changes don’t go far enough to restore pure flat-out driving.
“It’s a small step in the right direction, but it’s not to the level that Formula 1 should still be at yet. If you go flat out everywhere and you try pushing like you were in previous years, you still just get penalised for it.”
Miami Tweaks Fall Short
With input from drivers, F1 implemented a series of energy deployment adjustments before Miami designed to allow harder pushing in qualifying. The modifications reduce the need to lift off the throttle mid-lap to manage battery charge, a frustration drivers have voiced since the 2026 rules package debuted.
The full effect of those changes has yet to emerge at circuits where energy recovery is more challenging than Miami’s stop-start layout. But Norris made clear he sees fundamental limits to what can be achieved within the current regulatory framework.
“You still can’t be flat out everywhere. It’s not about being as early on throttle everywhere. You should never get penalised for that kind of thing, and you still do. So honestly, I don’t really think you can fix that. You just have to get rid of the battery. So hopefully in a few years, that’s the case.”
F1 stakeholders have agreed in principle to go further in 2027, increasing combustion engine power output by 50kW through higher fuel flow while reducing electric deployment by an equal amount. That hardware shift will move the power split closer to 60-40 combustion-to-electric, abandoning the original 50-50 goal.
Wild Closing Speeds Create Safety Concerns
Norris’s McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri described Miami as his first real chance to experience the extreme speed differentials created when one car deploys full electric power while another runs depleted. The phenomenon led to a heavy crash for Haas driver Oliver Bearman at the Japanese Grand Prix earlier this season.
“At one point George [Russell] was one second behind me and managed to overtake me by the end of that straight. And it’s just a bit random. The closing speeds are huge, and trying to anticipate that as the defending driver is incredibly tough to do.”
Piastri admitted he found himself executing similarly aggressive moves later in the race, driven by closing speeds so large that traditional defensive driving becomes nearly impossible. He called the dynamic “pretty crazy” and said hardware-level changes remain essential.
“I think the collaboration again from the FIA and F1 has been good, but there’s only so many things you can change with the hardware we have. So, some changes in the future are still needed for sure. How quickly we can do it is the big question.”
Trust and Active Aero Complicate Battles
Race winner and championship leader Kimi Antonelli highlighted another wrinkle: active aerodynamics make cars sluggish to change direction when wings are lowered in Straight Mode, requiring drivers to plan defensive moves well in advance.
“The closing speeds are massive, and you also need to trust the guy who is defending because also with this active aero, the car is pretty lazy when you want to change direction, so you need to think in advance. As I said, you need to trust the driver who is defending. But it was a small step in the right direction, and let’s see what’s going to happen next.”
Mercedes driver George Russell, who finished ahead of Piastri in Miami, was involved in several of the wheel-to-wheel moments that illustrated the problem. Piastri noted he “wasn’t that pleased” with one Russell move but acknowledged executing similar overtakes himself due to the sheer velocity differential.
The next round of the championship will test whether Miami’s deployment tweaks deliver more noticeable benefits on circuits with different energy recovery profiles. For Norris, the answer to F1’s current challenges lies beyond software adjustments — and squarely on ditching the hybrid era’s defining technology.