F1 pre-season testing: Lando Norris admits new 2026 cars ‘not purest form of racing’

Lando Norris has admitted he described the new Formula 1 cars as «a lot of fun» last week to «see what the reaction was of everyone».

The world champion also suggested Max Verstappen, who had said the cars were «just not F1», could «go and find something else to do» if he did not like them.

On Thursday, at the second pre-season test, Norris said: «I just didn’t want to come out into the media and complain to everyone on the first weekend back.

«I just wanted to say that and see what the reaction was of everyone.

«It’s been quite an amusing week, and it certainly made a lot of people comment and say a lot of things.»

The McLaren driver also admitted the cars were «certainly not the purest form of racing», and he shared Verstappen’s views in many ways.

«I agree with Max on a lot of comments,» Norris said. «Probably most of the comments I agree with, but it’s not that I don’t have fun out there. So there’s two sides.

«I do agree with basically every other driver, because I think every other driver has made their comments pretty clear. I just didn’t want to come out into the media and complain to everyone on the first weekend back. I want to still enjoy my time and just say what I feel.

«I had fun last week. I’ve still been having fun out there now. And I think we know as a championship with FIA and with Formula 1, we’re trying to improve the car that we have now, because it’s certainly not the purest form of racing, and that’s what Formula 1 should be.

«A lot of the driving is focused on just trying to get the battery to work properly and less focused on how can you as a driver get everything out of the car.»

Verstappen’s criticisms centred on the amount of energy management that is required with the new cars.

The combination of the power provided by the electrical part of the engine being increased three-fold, to about half of the total output, and the batteries being more or less the same size, has led to drivers doing tasks they have described as counter-intuitive.

These include not coming out of the corner before a qualifying lap as fast as possible, lifting and coasting on the straights on qualifying laps, and backing off before the end of a qualifying lap, all strategies aimed at the optimum use of energy and best overall lap time.

This has led to continuing discussions behind the scenes about tweaks to the rules before or after the start of the season, when the regulations governing engines are already complicated as a consequence of the way the engines perform.

A number of drivers have also expressed concern about the potential difficulty of overtaking as the former DRS overtaking aid has been replaced by a «boost» button giving a burst of extra electrical energy, which is proving less effective so far.

Williams driver Carlos Sainz, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, said: «My message to [commercial rights holder] FOM and FIA is [at] the start of the year we need to stay a bit open-minded in case the regulations that we’ve come up with are maybe a bit exaggerated on the amount of harvesting or deployment that we have to do through a lap.

«It might make some circuits OK, like potentially here, even though I still think here is not fully OK with what we’re seeing so far.

«But tracks like Melbourne or potentially Jeddah, tracks that might be more energy-demanding, we might need to adjust a bit the regulations.

«It is not easy because it’s such a big change that I don’t think anyone knew how to predict how much downforce/drag the car was going to have and what level of deployment the teams would come up with. We should stay flexible rather than committed to a certain level of energy management.»

On the penultimate day of pre-season testing, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli set the fastest time by 0.058 seconds from the McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

Ferrari turned heads by trying out a rear wing that had its upper element turn upside down when the car’s straight-line mode was activated.

Straight-line mode is a new feature this year in which both front and rear wings open on the straights to increase speed and increase energy recovery possibilities.

Normally the rear wing flap simply moves to open a gap between it and the wing mainplane. Ferrari’s is an innovation never seen before.

The team described the wing as a test item and it was seen only briefly before what Ferrari said was an unrelated «banal» technical problem stopped the car.

Hamilton managed only five laps before the lunch break, and returned to the track in the second four-hour session to complete 78 laps for the day – compared to Verstappen’s 139 as one of the few other drivers who took part in both sessions – and set the fourth-fastest time.

Headline lap times in testing are unreliable indicators of form and the general opinion is the top four teams – Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren – are clear of the rest, with Mercedes viewed by most as in the best shape at this stage.

Aston Martin were another team to have reliability problems. Fernando Alonso stopped on track with a problem with his Honda engine and did not get out again for the final two hours or so of the day.

The team are struggling with an uncompetitive, overweight car and an underpowered engine and Alonso was 4.669secs off the pace.

Practice starts performed at the end of each session to assuage concerns about the difficulty of preparing the new engines for launching off the line seemed to show Ferrari-engined cars may have a significant advantage at the start of the race.

Fastest times, day two, final pre-season test, Bahrain

1 Kimi Antonelli (Ita) Mercedes one minute 32.803 seconds

2 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren +0.058

3 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull +0.359

4 Lewis Hamilton (GB) Ferrari +0.605

5 Lando Norris (GB) McLaren +0.650

6 Franco Colapinto (Arg) Alpine +1.015

7 Nico Hülkenberg (Ger) Audi +1.184

8 George Russell (GB) Mercedes +1.308

9 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Haas +1.398

10 Liam Lawson (NZ) Racing Bulls +1.729

11 Alex Albon (Tha) Williams +1.752

12 Gabriel Bortoleto (Brz) Audi +2.460

13 Oliver Bearman (GB) Haas +2.476

14 Sergio Pérez (Mex) Cadillac +2.566

15 Fernando Alonso (Spa) +4.699

16 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Cadillac +7.390