“Get rid of the battery” Lando Norris urges as rule tweaks ‘not to F1 level’

Lando Norris has called for Formula 1 to go further and “get rid of the battery” after getting his first taste of the package of tweaks to the regulations.

F1 bosses revealed a raft of changes to the regulations aimed at allowing drivers to push closer to flat out in qualifying, and reduce the amount they need to lift and coast in response to a wave of criticism after the opening three races of the 2026 season.

These were introduced at this weekend's Miami Grand Prix and while reigning world champion Norris described them as being a step in the right direction, he feels more drastic action needs to be taken.

“It’s a small step in the right direction but it’s not to the level that F1 should be at, yet,” Norris said after finishing second in Sunday’s race in Miami.

“We said in qualifying if you go flat-out everywhere and you are pushing like you were in previous years you still just get penalised for it. You still can’t be flat-out everywhere. It’s not about being as early on throttle everywhere, you should never get penalised for it and you still do.

“Honestly, I don’t think you can really fix that, you just have to get rid of the battery. So hopefully in a few years that’s the case.”

Norris’s McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri says qualifying has improved but doesn’t think “much has changed” in race situations, particularly when it comes to drastic closing speed differences.

This was highlighted as a major safety concern by drivers following Ollie Bearman’s terrifying high-speed crash at the Japanese Grand Prix, and was something F1 hoped to address.

“I think the reducing the harvest limit in qualifying has helped a bit. It’s not fixed the problem, or all the problems, but it’s helping with one,” the Australian said.

“The races are basically exactly the same. Today was my first proper experience of overtaking people and having to defend and it’s pretty crazy, to be honest.

“At one point on my dash I could see George [Russell] was one second behind me, and he managed to overtake me by the end of that straight. It’s just a bit random.

“All the closing speeds are huge and trying to anticipate that as the defending driver is incredibly tough to do, and for the overtaking driver.

“I wasn’t that pleased with one of the moves George did, but I kind of found myself almost doing the same move about five laps later just because the closing speed is enormous. So from that side of things, not much has changed.

“I think the collaboration from the FIA and F1’s been good but there’s only so many things you can change with the hardware we have. So some changes for the future are still needed, for sure. How quickly we can do it is the big question.”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who claimed a historic third consecutive victory to further strengthen his early championship lead, echoed the comments made by his rivals.

“Qualifying feels better, more natural,” the Mercedes driver said. “Races, the closing speed is still massive. You also need to trust the guy who is defending because with this active aero the car is pretty lazy when you want to change direction.

“So you need to think in advance and you also need to trust as well, the driver who is defending. It was a small step in the right direction, let’s see what’s going to happen next.”