F1 News: Norris predicts 2026 technical Regulations will ruin F1

In today’s post-qualifying press conference for the 2024 Canadian GP, Lando Norris was asked about the huge change coming to F1 in 2026 and what it will do to competition given how close it is now.

So close in fact, that in pole qualifying today, both George Russell and Max Verstappen set identical fastest times.

“I mean, it’s not up to me. It doesn’t matter what I say,” said Norris.

“But I think you’re not going to have days like today again. You’re not going to have days like the last few weeks probably until ‘28 or ‘29. So it’s how it’s always been. Every time there’s a regulation change, there’s big gaps.

“And even at the end of the last era, so 2020 or whatever it was, ‘21, things were getting closer again. You had still Red Bull against Mercedes, and everyone was getting closer,” added Norris.

“And then the new regulations went into effect and everything spread out again. Red Bull had their time, and now it seems like we’ve been able to catch up. So just as we’re getting there, and I think probably looking ahead to next year already, next year should be an exciting year for everyone, just from first to last. I think it’s going to be exciting.

“But then that’s all going to go away in ‘26. So it depends what you want. I think it’s still exciting now. I know it’s an exciting qualifying. There might be some benefits in the race for those regulations. There might be some things that are worse. The type of racing you’re going to get is probably quite different,” said Norris

“So it’s complicated. It’s not a simple answer. I don’t know the answer at the same time. I don’t think anyone knows exactly how it’s going to pan out. Yeah, always at the end of these regulation changes we see days like today and we see closer battles between, now Mercedes up here as well.

“So that’s four teams who are fighting towards the top. Eight cars, you’re going to see different winners. And I think that’s exciting for people watching, but definitely you’re not going to have that in ‘26.

“So it depends if you want to kind of keep this excitement and keep this challenge that we have now, or if you want to change everything again and have another few years where it’s far apart,” concluded Norris.