Lando Norris renewed his criticism of Formula 1‘s current power units, stating that a driver’s one-lap pace is increasingly shaped by factors beyond their control rather than outright skill.
Norris’ comments come amid a wider debate around F1’s power unit era, with issues such as the supposed ‘yo-yo’ racing and superclipping dominating discussion through the British and Belgian rounds.
Sky Sports pundit and former driver Martin Brundle has become the latest to call out the problem, pleading for the current approach to be scrapped after suggesting it has stripped some of the sport’s most iconic corners of their challenge.
And Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri was similarly unrestrained in his words, saying that it “sucks,” adding that “when you’ve got qualifying grids decided by computers behaving or misbehaving, it’s a pretty crap way of going racing.”
Norris’ weekend underlined his point. Having qualified a strong third at Spa-Francorchamps before a 10-place grid penalty dropped him down the order, he recovered to finish seventh on race day. That came after teammate Piastri was hit by a power unit glitch of his own during his run, costing him track position he might otherwise have held.
Asked how easily a driver can be caught out by the self-learning units, Norris said the margins have little to do with driving talent, framing it instead as a matter of hitting a throttle input at the right moment rather than being genuinely at fault. In his view, too much of a driver’s ultimate pace is now dictated by variables entirely outside their control, and hoping the power unit behaves as intended has become as important as anything happening in the cockpit.
“I mean, it’s got nothing to do with you as a driver, really,” he said. “Sometimes it does, and we’re talking about like being a few meters early on the button or whatever. It just makes a big difference at times.
“But there are certain things within your control and a lot of things, way too many things, that are out of your control.
“It’s a shame that there are so many things that can dictate your own pace in qualifying. It’s not down to the driver. It’s just down to hoping you get lucky that the power unit does what it should do, and doesn’t do something silly.”
‘The power units are doing whatever they want’
Norris went on to explain that the problem has dogged him for most of the season, and that Spa was actually the first weekend all year where he felt genuinely competitive on the straights — a rare moment of relief after months of feeling on the back foot in that respect.
“Honestly, it’s been costing me the whole year,” he said. “This is the first weekend I think all season I’ve been competitive in the straights, so it’s the first time I’m probably happy.
“So I’ve had the problems all season and this is the first race I’ve been the one that’s like, ‘oh, I’m happy in the straights for once,’ and it was the first time Oscar was the one a little bit on the back foot in qualifying.
“But it’s also not up to him. It’s just down to the power units doing whatever they want.”
The remarks add to a growing chorus of concern from within the paddock, following Brundle’s own broadside against the regulations after the Belgian Grand Prix, as scrutiny of the current power unit rules shows no sign of easing.
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