Lando Norris makes U-turn on F1 2026 cars for the wildest reason

Lando Norris

Lando Norris makes U-turn on F1 2026 cars for the wildest reason

The McLaren superstar has a very different view this week in Bahrain

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Saturday 21 February 2026 12:59

Lando Norris made a massive U-turn this week on those controversial new 2026 F1 cars, for the wildest of reasons.

The 26-year-old British superstar is about to start the defence of the world title he claimed at Abu Dhabi in early December. But most of the headlines right now are about the new regulations that so many drivers hate.

Chief agitator has been four-time world champion Max Verstappen, with the Red Bull star saying last week in Bahrain that driving them is like "Formula E on steroids". Verstappen also made fresh comments about the potential for him to retire from the sport if he is not enjoying his racing.

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Norris of course was asked about those comments and gave a counter opinion at the time, also adding that Max can 'go find something else to do' if he's not happy.

That response created a ton of headlines, not surprising with Verstappen and Norris just coming off a mighty title battle and expected to soon engage on another one in 2026.

Why did Norris backtrack on 2026 car comments?

Imagine the surprise then, when a week later, Lando completely backtracked and explained the crazy reason why. Namely that he just hadn't wanted to start his new year by complaining.

"I just didn't want to come out to the media and complain to everyone on the first weekend back," Norris told reporters during testing on Thursday.

"It's been quite an amusing week seeing the reactions...it's certainly made a lot of people comment and say a lot of things which has been pretty funny. I just wanted to see everyone's reaction."

New cars 'absolutely not' as enjoyable

So the real truth is that Norris admits these cars are just not as much fun as their previous iterations - he just maybe doesn't dislike them quite as much as Verstappen.

The McLaren superstar accepted that the new cars were very different to last year and 'absolutely not' as enjoyable.

"Is it still a challenge and good fun out there? Yeah," he said.

"I'm certainly not going to change my job for anything else."

F1 Max Verstappen McLaren Lando Norris 2026 regulations