Red Bull’s dominance in the ground-effect era seems to have finally come to an end, thanks to rivals like McLaren and Ferrari catching up. But, with the latest regulation change coming into force from 2026 onwards, Lando Norris has delivered a grim verdict surrounding the supposed lack of competitiveness it is going to spread.
Norris was apprehensive about a rule change just when teams had started bunching up together in terms of performance. The Canadian GP Qualifying session was a perfect example of this. George Russell secured a shock pole for Mercedes with less than two-tenths of a second separating the top five.
The #4 driver, however, believes this won’t be possible with the 2026 regulations. “I think you’re not going to have days like today again,” began the Briton as quoted by Motorsport.com. He explained, “Every time there’s a regulation change, there’s big gaps.”
The 2024 Miami GP winner then went on to highlight how exciting the championship had become this year with the other teams closing the gap to Red Bull. But, with 2026 right over the horizon, this excitement could be short-lived. “I think it’s going to be exciting. But then that’s all going to go in ‘26,” concluded Norris.
lando’s thoughts on the 2026 regulation changes: i think you’re not gonna have days like today again or the last few weeks until maybe ‘26-27-28-29 [..] it’s complicated it’s not a simple answer, i don’t know the answer at the same time.. pic.twitter.com/5oEfczjInN
— ray (@ln4norris) June 8, 2024
A lot has been said about the 2026 regulations. Earlier this month, the FIA revealed the specifics and details about the latest changes. And Norris is not the only Formula 1 driver who has his reservations about the direction the sport is now moving in.
Like Lando Norris, Alex Albon also raises question marks around the 2026 regulations
The 2026 rule set has raised a lot of eyebrows. The big change for 2026 is going to be the introduction of active aerodynamics and a 50-50 split between the internal combustion engine and the battery pack.
But from first impressions, Williams driver, Alex Albon is not impressed. While speaking to ESPN, the British-Thai driver revealed, “We’ve had our sim guys do some work, but myself I haven’t done any work. I don’t want to speak out of turn, but I think it’s going to be very slow, extremely slow.”
All the angles!
A peek at Formula 1 cars from 2026 onwards #F1 @fia pic.twitter.com/HfbmZG6mPh
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 6, 2024
Even Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg prefaced the “drastic change” that the 2026 regulations were going to bring with them in the way racing takes place on track. On the other hand, Norris has still not delivered a final verdict on the new regulations as he believes no one really knows how it’s going to pan out.
