Change of line
This time he also got angry Lando Norris. The reigning world champion – who at the start of testing in Bahrain had teased Max Verstappen after his outburst against this new generation of single-seaters, only to then recant – he thundered in a decidedly harsh manner at the end of the qualifying for the Australian GP in Melbourne against the newly introduced technical regulations. McLaren’s #1, who seems to have very little chance of defending his title given the obvious technical supremacy of Mercedes, defined the current single-seaters as the “worst in history” of F1.
“We’ve gone from the best cars ever built in Formula 1, and the nicest to drive, to arguably the worst. It sucks – declared Norris, who will start from the sixth spot on the third row tomorrow, alongside teammate Oscar Piastri – we have to live with it, but everyone knows what the problems are. The fact is that the engine is split 50/50 (between thermal energy and electrical energy) and it simply doesn’t work“.
Battery problems
“There are many problems to deal with – Norris continued in his analysis – it decelerates so much before corners that you have to lift your foot everywhere to make sure the battery pack is at maximum level, but if it’s too high you’re screwed. It’s difficult, but it’s what we have. It’s not pleasant as a driver, but I’m sure George is smiling. We have to live with it.”he commented with a joke.
Another problem is related to safety, according to the McLaren driver: Norris himself in fact hit a piece of debris lost from Antonelli’s car – one of the blowers that remained attached to the car during his exit from the pits – because he was intent on looking at his steering wheel at the time: “I was looking at my steering wheel and that’s why I didn’t see the debris. I have to look at the speed I will reach at the end of the straight to know if I have to brake 30 meters before or 10 meters after. And that’s another problem”, he concluded.
