George Russell responds to Lando Norris ‘worst cars’ criticism of F1 2026 regulations

George Russell claimed that Lando Norris would not be complaining about the F1 2026 cars in the way he is, if he was still winning.

Norris, the reigning World Champion, said that Formula 1 has gone from the “best” to “worst” cars under the new regulations. Norris said that after finishing a distant P5 in Melbourne. Race winner Russell alleged the McLaren drivers of silence when Mercedes were sounding the alarm over porpoising with the ground effect cars, and McLaren were winning.

George Russell brushes off Lando Norris F1 2026 complaints

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Norris started out speaking in favour of Formula 1’s new era, but, has since done a complete U-turn, joining Max Verstappen as a vocal critic.

For example, after the Australian Grand Prix, which he finished 51 seconds behind P1 Russell, Norris complained that overtaking is now too artificial with battery deployment.

“It’s different, it’s definitely different,” said Russell in the post-race press conference when informed of Norris’ comments.

“But I think the interesting thing with these regs is every track we go to, they’re not always going to be like this.

“We’re going to Shanghai next where you’ve got one big, long straight, so the majority of drivers will be using their energy on that one straight. You don’t need to divide it up between four, like you do here in Melbourne.

“So, everyone’s very quick to criticise things. You need to give it a shot, you know.

“We’re 22 drivers. When we’ve had the best cars and the least tyre degradation and when we’ve been happiest, everyone moans the racing’s rubbish. Now drivers aren’t perfectly happy and everyone said it was an amazing race. So, you can’t have it all, and I think we should just give it a chance and see after a few more races.”

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Norris’ complaints did not end there. He said the cars became “ever worse” in race spec versus qualifying, and are the “worst cars” ever, with the near 50/50 split of electrical and Internal Combustion Engine power not cutting it, according to Norris.

“If he was winning, I don’t think he’d be saying the same,” was Russell’s response on Norris.

“We weren’t happy with how stiff the cars were last year and the porpoising, and everyone had a bad back and drivers were complaining about that, but McLaren drivers said there was no porpoising, even though we watched their car and they were porpoising.

“So, you know, everyone’s always looking to themselves and we’re all selfish in this regard.

“The truth is last year we had the same engine as them and McLaren did a better job than us and they beat us. Now McLaren have got the same engine as us, the same as Williams and the same as Alpine, and so far we’ve done a better job than them. So that’s just how the game goes.”

F1 2026 continues this weekend with the Chinese Grand Prix.

Additional reporting by Mat Coch

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