Lando Norris, a driver for the McLaren team, thinks that Formula 1 is more exciting now than it has been in a long time. However, he worries that this excitement might change with the new technical rules for the cars that will start in 2026.
“The last time the rules changed, the last year was kind of the most exciting year between the first team and the last team,” Norris said over the weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix. “Now, just when it gets exciting, there’s going to be another change.”
Max Verstappen of Red Bull won the race in Montreal. It was his sixth win in nine races this season, and he seems to be on his way to winning a fourth season championship in a row. The 26-year-old Dutch driver has won 50 of the last 75 F1 races.
Still, some drivers see the competition getting better, and three different drivers led the race in Montreal.
F1 is becoming more popular in North America, but the series has been criticized for being predictable. People often know who will win the race ahead of time, and cars rarely pass each other. Verstappen’s dominance hasn’t changed this view among casual fans.
Last week, the series outlined a set of proposed changes for its 10 teams in 2026. F1 said these changes would make the cars more “agile, competitive, safer, and more sustainable.” The series promoted the increased use of battery power, lighter chassis, and better aerodynamics as it proposed changing the engines for the first time since 2014.
Critics are particularly interested in F1’s plan to ensure more chances for cars to pass each other “through the introduction of a new system that gives drivers a short burst of additional battery power when within one second of the car in front.”
Technical developments often lead to a period of dominance for teams that figure out the engineering early, while others take years to catch up. In 2021, Verstappen and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes battled until the final race in one of the most exciting seasons in F1 history.
New rules took effect the following year, and Red Bull won 39 of the 44 races in 2022 and 2023. The lack of drama led some to suggest that the sport’s popularity in North America was starting to decrease after the success of “Drive to Survive,” Netflix’s behind-the-scenes series.
“You can have massive gaps (with new rules), and then people are gonna go, ‘Well, it’s just boring again,'” Norris said, according to the Canadian Press. “When you look at how it is now, it’s probably as exciting as it’s been in a very long time. I want to just leave it like this for a few years, and I think that’s going to be the best for people watching on TV.”
The FIA introduced a cost cap in 2021 to reduce the difference between teams. After the latest plans were revealed, even Verstappen and Hamilton said they were worried the gap in competition might increase.
“The longer you keep the regulations the same, the closer it gets between the teams,” Verstappen said. “So ’26 will be probably quite a big reset.”
“More often than not, when they’ve done the changes, some teams do better than the others,” added Hamilton. “I hope that with this new regulation change, everything’s a bit closer.”
Verstappen has a 56-point lead in the drivers’ standings going into the June 23 race in Spain. Still, four drivers have won races through this year’s nine stops, which is more than all of last season.
Red Bull is also first in the constructors’ championship with 301 points. Ferrari has 252 even after a disastrous weekend where both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz did not finish. McLaren isn’t far behind with 212, and Mercedes has 124.
“That’s four teams who are fighting towards the top,” Norris said. “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. 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.”
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri said F1 is also trying to be at the forefront of technology and innovation.
“You could argue that sometimes that does come at the cost of the racing, which is always a shame,” he said. “We’re only just starting to catch up to Red Bull, week in, week out.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.