(Motorsport-Total.com) – Starting from the Miami Grand Prix this weekend, the rule changes that Formula 1 and the FIA decided last week will come into effect. Among other things, these are intended to ensure that drivers can push closer to the limit again in qualifying.
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Lando Norris has explained in this context why he and many other drivers were particularly frustrated in qualifying at the start of the year. The core of the problem is the fact that you often lose time even though as a driver you actually feel faster.
In the past, qualifying was about simply trying to “brake as late as possible” in every corner, carrying as much speed as possible into the fast corners, and getting back on the throttle as early as possible on corner exit.
In summary, the goal was simply to “be as close to the limit as possible at all times,” explains the world champion. Ultimately, it was about which driver could push “one to two percent” more than everyone else. But this element disappeared in 2026.
“Exactly these one to two percent are what make it special and exciting,” Norris emphasizes and explains that in the past a driver could surprisingly secure pole position “because he took those few small risks.”
Risk is no longer rewarded
“And you have kind of taken away this element,” he says frustrated. But why is that? The background is the new cars this year, which force drivers to pay attention to their battery even in qualifying. If you are too fast, your energy runs out too quickly.
Norris gives an example from China this year: “I got on the throttle five or ten meters earlier [in a corner]. That feels good. You see the delta getting smaller. Then you get on the straight and just drive slower. That doesn’t feel good in the car.”
“You think: I did a better job here. I took the risk,” says Norris. But the consequence due to the resulting energy shortage is “that you drive ten km/h slower on the straight and lose more than you ever gain.”
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While the corresponding situation in the past would have led to a better lap time, Norris was even slower in this case – although the driver did nothing differently. The difference is solely the car or rather the power unit.
It still depends on the driver, but …
According to Norris, even more absurd are cases where a driver “sometimes benefits from a mistake because in a way it saves battery,” explains the world champion and emphasizes that as a driver you basically have to drive against your own instinct.
“In an ideal world, none of this would exist and you would just drive as fast as possible. You still drive as fast as possible, but under certain aspects you are not allowed to accelerate here, not allowed to accelerate there,” explains Norris.
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The situation is particularly complicated because the driver has no influence on the energy output. This is controlled automatically by a machine learning algorithm. According to Norris, however, this does not mean that the computer is now primarily responsible for the qualifying result.
“As a driver, you still have to do a good job,” he makes clear and emphasizes: “You cannot take anything away from the one who gets pole position, because he also has to drive.” You just have to “make the best of what you have,” the world champion knows.
But the “special feeling” from qualifying in the past is no longer there. It remains to be seen whether this will change with the rule adjustments for Miami.
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