{"id":600351,"date":"2026-04-11T16:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T16:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600351\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T16:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T16:14:09","slug":"why-lando-norris-fears-one-aspect-driving-the-2026-f1-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600351\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Lando Norris fears one aspect driving the 2026 F1 cars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lando Norris has revealed a fear of driving the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/racing\/2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> 2026 <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/series\/single-seater\/formula-1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> cars, due to one aspect of the new power units.<\/p>\n<p>Reigning world champion Norris is part of the camp that spoke of their displeasure at the driving style needed for the new cars, as they continue to divide drivers and fans.<\/p>\n<p>Norris has also suffered poor reliability in the opening races, enduring issues in practice sessions, including a DNS in China. <\/p>\n<p>While on track, he has looked far from happy in the MCL40, wrestling his car to fifth in Australia and Japan, with qualifying proving somewhat of a disappointment, only qualifying fifth in Japan. <\/p>\n<p>As Qualifying continues to come under fire from fans for the reduced power output, Norris shared his frustrations on the battery-induced issues on Saturdays. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course, there are some better and some worse tracks, and they\u2019ve made some improvements, but it can still be further improved,\u201d Norris said to media, including Motorsport Week. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just want to go flat out, I don\u2019t want to be lifting and losing 60kph into 130R [at Suzuka] into the final corner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost other categories will have a higher\u00a0top speed\u00a0than us, so some things can be improved, the FIA know that and I hope they do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lando-Norris-F1-Japanese-GP-4-1024x576.webp.webp\" alt=\"The closing speeds of the 2026 cars are a major concern to Lando Norris \" class=\"wp-image-242944\"  \/>The closing speeds of the 2026 cars are a major concern to Lando Norris <\/p>\n<p>Safety concerns for Lando Norris <\/p>\n<p>Norris, however, expressed concerns about the impact of battery management on racing, citing a lack of driver control in high-speed corners like 130R, taken at over 170mph. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, the racing can look great on TV, but the racing inside the car is certainly not as authentic as it needs to be,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe big problem [at Suzuka] was it deploys into 130R, and I have to lift, and I\u2019m not allowed to go back on the throttle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I go back on the throttle, my battery deploys, and I don\u2019t want it to deploy because it should have cut, and because you lifted, it redeploys, so you can\u2019t go back on it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is nothing I can do about it, so there is just not enough control for a driver; that\u2019s why you are at the mercy of what is behind you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Norris\u2019 words echo a growing number of drivers with legitimate safety concerns. The Oliver Bearman crash showed the dangers of closing speeds with the regulations as they are, necessitating the urgent talks between the teams and the FIA.<\/p>\n<p>Drivers are demanding change. Whether they get what they want remains to be seen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris has revealed a fear of driving the 2026 Formula 1 cars, due to one aspect of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,1737,913,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-600351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-lando-norris","14":"tag-mclaren","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}