Lando Norris warns overtaking in F1 2026 “going to be more complicated”

Reigning Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris believes it will be “more complicated to understand how you prepare overtakes” with the 2026 cars.

F1’s major regulations overhaul for the 2026 season is aimed at improving the on-track spectacle, after the previous ground effect cars proved to make overtaking harder.

As well as less downforce than before, drivers will have active aero and more battery power at their disposal to try to improve overtaking chances.

However, McLaren’s Lando Norris believes all of the new systems, particularly around energy management, will make it “more complicated” to set up overtakes this season as he predicts “chaos” to ensue.

“At the minute, I think there’s a bit more emphasis on how the driver can manage and handle all of these things,” he said in a recent McLaren media event attended by Crash.net.

“Both in a qualifying lap but also in a racing situation, I think it’s going to be more complicated to understand, like how do you prepare overtakes.

“Before, it was pretty simple in terms of you drive as quickly as possible but avoid the dirty air, and it was quite easy to build up the battery in a good way and efficient way.

“Now, when you save battery, you’re going to lose a lot of time and lose a lot on the straights.

“So, it’s just understanding these things. A lot of it is engineering and calculations, but the drivers still generally have to do the job on track in applying all of these things.

“So, I think you’re going to see more chaos in races where a driver is going to have to be on top of all these different situations that can happen.

“And it will happen throughout the whole year. I think there’s more emphasis on how the drivers handle these things.”

The new-for-2026 regulations are also aimed to making it easier for cars to follow each other, in another potential boost to overtaking.

But Oscar Piastri believes anyone expecting a radical shift in this respect is “kidding themselves”.

“I think in terms of following, I don’t know well enough yet,” he said.

“I did follow a couple of cars, and especially in testing, you never know what fuel and what tyres anyone is on, certainly not when you are in the car.

“It’s difficult to get a read, but I think anyone expecting it to be a radical improvement is probably kidding themselves a bit.

“It’s still a Formula 1 car. Any single-seater, whether it’s a Formula 4 car, F3 car, F2 car, they’re all hard to follow in.

“So, an F1 car is even harder because of the more downforce. I think it’s gone in the right direction, and only time will tell. But there’s certainly still going to be dirty air around.”