The Formula 1 regulations underwent one of the biggest transformations in 2026, generating dissatisfaction among drivers, who speak out about changes in driving style, describing many actions as unnatural. The reliance on batteries, implemented in the new rules, has been a point of concern, requiring a different approach to high-speed corners.
Among the drivers facing the most challenges in adjusting to the W17 single-seater is George Russell, while young Andrea Kimi Antonelli appears to demonstrate a more fluid adaptation to the car’s performance.
In this context of transition and difficulties, McLaren’s Lando Norris appealed to his grid colleague, emphasizing the importance of a flexible mentality and the need to “think outside the box” to overcome obstacles.
“I’ve had to change the way I drive every year of my life,” said Norris, on July 24, 2026, in Hungary. The driver added that, for Russell, the way of driving worked for two decades, but for him, this stability did not occur, as his style was only effective in 2018, during his testing season, requiring changes since then.
The British competitor expressed that, with increasing experience in Formula 1, drivers must be more prepared. For Norris, “If you’re not ready to adapt to a different car, then you’re not at a good enough level. It’s our job, that’s why we’re paid millions. It’s to drive any car you’re given, whether it’s efficient, limited, simple or complex. You need to do it.”
Lando Norris himself faced difficult times, especially at the start of the 2025 season, to get the most out of his McLaren at the limit during the qualifying sessions. He did, however, manage to develop technical and driving style solutions that put him back in title contention, and this cycle of continuous tuning continues with the 2026 car.
“Every race I enter, I feel like I need to completely erase the previous weekend and learn to drive a new vehicle because that’s how it works for us,” explained Norris. He concluded by saying that each driver has their own particularities, but for him, his entire career in F1 has focused on how he can adjust his driving each season.
The rules around power distribution are so complex that car power units rely on machine learning software to manage them. This particularity generated frustration among drivers, as the sensitivity of the controls can cause a car to lose tenths of a second on the straight due to a small variation in the preceding curve.
Oscar Piastri, another McLaren driver, said in Spa that sometimes qualifying results seem to be determined by “computers that work well or badly”, highlighting the unpredictability of the system.
Despite the difficulty for the general public in separating the driver’s performance from the power unit’s performance, and even though Norris shared the dissatisfaction with the randomness of the engine’s behavior, he demonstrated disagreement with Max Verstappen’s view that the driver can no longer make that much of a difference.
“You can certainly make a difference,” Norris said. He acknowledged that some corners become more neutral and performance may become more restricted, but insisted that if the driver is superior, most corners still offer opportunities to gain an advantage over others while maintaining the lead.
With the new regulations, although some faster corners are now used to recharge energy, Norris realizes that the reduced levels of downforce in the 2026 cars are making medium-speed corners a much greater challenge. “On extremely fast tracks, like Silverstone and Spa, there are fewer corners where it is possible to gain lap time. But on a circuit like this, I don’t believe that is true at all,” concluded the driver.
