Lando Norris expresses 'sack off' wish as drivers navigate complex F1 tightrope

Lando Norris has expressed his desire for F1 to "sack off" batteries as he delivered a detailed breakdown of the tightrope drivers must navigate with the new engines.

The reigning world champion was initially one of the strongest critics of F1's new power units for 2026, which featured a 50:50 split in terms of power output between the internal combustion engine and the beefed-up batteries, up from about 80:20 in 2025.

Circuits in 2026 have been divided into one of two camps, namely 'energy rich' and 'energy starved', with tracks featuring long straights and free-flowing corners such as Albert Park, Silverstone, and Spa particularly vulnerable to drivers losing energy as there are few ample opportunities to recharge in heavy braking zones.

On the contrary, this weekend's Hungarian GP is expected to allow drivers to attack fully owing to the tight, twisty nature, meaning the batteries do not fully deplete and leave the drivers with 50% less available energy. 

Detailing the tightrope drivers must walk, McLaren's Norris gave a lengthy breakdown of what is happening in the cockpit, and expressed his desire for the battery to be "sacked off."

"I mean, there are certainly times and certain things that are tougher to understand; there are still some silly rules at times that just don't make any sense," Norris began to tell media, including RacingNews365. 

"There are some rules that, to be honest, like the FIA changed the rule, I think it was from Friday to Saturday last weekend, from over a certain speed, I think it was 210kph, if you lift off and reapply the throttle, it still limits what happens between the ICE and the battery, and it basically wastes battery. 

"There are still rules of when overtaking: if you run out and you're at the bottom of the clipping, if you lift off and go on throttle because you've had to avoid something, you start to reuse all your battery for some reason; it is the same as what I had in Japan when I overtook, and I just wasted the battery. 

"So there are still certain things that you're like: 'Why is this even a thing?' and you still have the problems that we had in Spa. Like, even though the coding is pretty much exactly the same, certain things shouldn't happen. It still does something slightly different, and when you do something slightly different over a seven-kilometre lap, the results can actually be pretty large. 

"Some of those things, though, are minute and you can't think of them, and it is game over, so, as a driver, you just focus on the driving. 

"There are fewer meetings now where I come out of it and am like: 'Well, what do I do?', there are still some every now and then, but it is more like you driver slower at moments and get an advantage back, and there are certain times when you're like: 'Well, why was my battery finished here?' and it was because you spent three metres more here or there and you didn't have to avoid a car here, and therefore you're battery was 20% lower.

"We've probably seen the toughest tracks now with Silverstone and Spa, so I think you've seen almost the worst of it. I hope that's real. 

"Like here will be fine. I think you have pretty much full deployment everywhere, but some places still going to be complicated, but there are some bigger issues that are very, very simple to fix, which I hope do get fixed over the course of this season and into next season. 

"But there are still some things that just will be better if we just sack off the whole battery."