Norris continues criticism of "very artificial" F1 2026 rules

Lando Norris once again slammed the “very artificial” 2026 Formula 1 regulations as he reckons races are now more dangerous than before after the dramatic Australian Grand Prix.

This year, F1 is debuting its latest regulation overhaul with changes to both the chassis and power unit, the latter of which is the biggest contention point as electric power is more prominent. 

It means battery management will play a greater role in grands prix and a lot of drivers don’t like this, including Norris, who on Saturday claimed “we’ve come from the best cars ever” to “probably the worst”. 

That was after he qualified sixth for the Melbourne season opener before ultimately finishing fifth, in what was a rather frenetic race with drivers constantly to-and-froing for position.

It is something Norris predicted in pre-season when he said grands prix will be more “chaotic” with drivers “yo-yoing” in wheel-to-wheel battles, but this isn’t something the reigning world champion enjoys.

When asked if the Albert Park race was too chaotic, Norris replied: “Way too much. It's chaos, you're going to have a big accident, which is a shame. You're driving and we're the ones just waiting for something to happen and something to go quite horribly wrong.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

“That's not a nice position to be in, but there's nothing we can really do about that now. It's a shame, it's very artificial, depending on what the power unit decides to do and randomly does at times.

“You just get overtaken by five cars or you can just do nothing about it sometimes. There's nothing we can change about it, so there's no point in saying any more, but not for me.”

A concern with the new regulations is closing speeds, because if a driver is harvesting battery, then the car behind will reduce the gap quicker than previously and this could potentially cause a dangerous scenario. 

“Just depending on what people do, you can have 30, 40, 50kph speeds,” added Norris. “When someone hits someone at that speed, you're going to fly and you're going to go over the fence and you're going to do a lot of damage to yourself and maybe to others. That's a pretty horrible thing to think about.”