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Lando Norris has warned Formula One is in danger of having a major accident that could injure fans as well as drivers after the season’s first race in Melbourne. The defending world champion was one of many drivers expressing discontent at the sport’s new direction this weekend, but other senior figures in F1 have called for time to adapt to the new rules.
Norris finished fifth for McLaren at the Australian Grand Prix, which was won by Mercedes’s George Russell. F1 has adopted complex regulations that require management of electrical energy. That includes the use of an overtake mode, allowing cars to apply extra power during a lap against rivals that may be slowing as they recharge their battery.
The changes were being tested in racing conditions for the first time and Norris was bluntly dismissive of the results. “It is chaos, and we are going to have a big accident,” he said. “Which is a shame because we are driving, and the ones just waiting for something to happen and to go quite horribly wrong, and that is not a nice position to be in.”
Norris added: “Depending on what drivers do, you can have closing speeds of 30-50kph, and when someone hits another driver at that speed, you are going to fly and go over the fence and do a lot of damage to yourself and maybe to others and that is a pretty horrible thing to think about.”
The British driver was not alone in his assessment of the new formula on its first outing at Albert Park. Max Verstappen, who finished an impressive sixth from 20th on the grid, has been outspoken in his criticism of how the new cars have to be driven. The four-time champion added to what has been a chorus of dissent over the opening weekend of the season.
“I love racing but you can only take so much,” Verstappen said. “I think F1 and the FIA [the governing body] are willing to listen, but I hope there is some action. It is not that I am the only one saying it. We are not critical just to be critical. We are critical for a reason. We want it to be proper Formula One on steroids, but today that wasn’t the case.”
Verstappen, who has threatened to leave the sport if he stops enjoying it, added: “I do love racing, and I want it to be better than this.”
Various other drivers also criticised the “artificial” nature of the push-to-pass overtake system using electrical energy, which led to places being exchanged repeatedly across a lap as a matter of course – but others felt the new rules had legs.
“I personally loved it. I thought the race was really fun to drive. I thought the car was really, really fun to drive,” said Lewis Hamilton, who took fourth for Ferrari after taking the fight to Mercedes alongside his teammate Charles Leclerc. “I watched the cars ahead, there was a good back and forth. So far, so good.”
F1 and the FIA are monitoring how the new form of racing plays out but there will be no kneejerk reaction and the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, and his Ferrari counterpart, Frédéric Vasseur, concurred in giving time for assesment.
“It makes sense to wait two or three events, it’s a very good start for the sport, a very good start for the show,” said Vasseur. “I think the fans probably enjoyed enjoyed the opening of the race a lot. Let’s continue like this, and if we have to react at one stage after a couple of races, we will react.”
