{"id":621933,"date":"2026-04-22T21:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/621933\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T21:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:54:09","slug":"lando-norris-backs-max-verstappen-to-stay-in-f1-after-drivers-win-rule-changes-formula-one-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/621933\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris backs Max Verstappen to stay in F1 after drivers win rule changes | Formula One 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris has said he believes Max Verstappen<\/a> will continue to race in Formula One but that it would be \u201ca miss\u201d for the sport if the four-time world champion did decide to leave owing to his dissatisfaction with the way this season\u2019s new regulations have affected how drivers race.<\/p>\n

Verstappen has been outspoken in his dislike of the new regulations and their focus on electrical energy management that now makes up almost 50% of the car\u2019s power output. He has intimated he might leave the sport but, with the rules having been adjusted by the FIA in an effort to address concerns of all drivers this week, Norris felt the Dutchman would remain in F1.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully things get better and I just saw that he said he wants to win the fifth world championship at the minute, so I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll stay longer than people say,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n

The McLaren driver, who is the defending world champion, noted, however, that it would very much be F1\u2019s loss if Verstappen left because he was disenchanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a shame for the sport, it would be a miss for the sport if that does happen because he probably is one of the best drivers you\u2019ll see in Formula One<\/a> ever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a shame for us because as much as he makes our lives incredibly tough at times, he\u2019s always good fun to race against and it\u2019s always cool to race against someone that\u2019s won four world championships. You always feel like you want to race against the best in the world and he certainly is one of them, so it would be a loss for the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday F1 announced the changes to the regulations<\/a>, which will come into force at the next round in Miami on 3 May. The adjustments focus on the parameters of the energy recovery management during qualifying and racing. Both Norris and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri expressed cautious optimism that the adjustments would indeed lead to a better experience behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen has been unhappy with this season\u2019s regulations. Photograph: Joel Carrett\/AAP<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two main things we [drivers] wanted addressing was reinstating the challenge in qualifying and making things more natural in the way it should be in qualifying and being able to reduce the closing speeds and the speed differences in the race in unexpected places,\u201d said Piastri.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FIA took it very seriously. F1 took it very seriously. I think that\u2019s reflected in some of the changes and the dialogue\u2019s been very good. We\u2019ll have to wait and see if we need further changes. We probably had ideas of other things that you could change but they\u2019re not things you can change from one weekend to the next. They\u2019re from year to year or even longer term than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the FIA did a good job of recognising our concerns and acting in what seemed like the most appropriate way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris was happy responding to all enquiries on Verstappen and the regulations after last week, during an interview by the Guardian\u2019s Donald McRae<\/a>, the driver\u2019s personal management team stated he would not answer questions relating to the new regulations or his rival drivers Verstappen and George Russell.<\/p>\n

Norris was apologetic at the stance of his management at the time and said he was happy to answer the questions but the interview was brought to a halt by his managerial team.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday Norris was speaking at an event at his team\u2019s HQ, the McLaren technology centre in Woking and embraced all questions, as is always the case when he is with McLaren and the driver continues to enjoy a friendly, open relationship with the media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris has said he believes Max Verstappen will continue to race in Formula One but that it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-621933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}