MIAMI -- Lando Norris has said he still finds it difficult to believe any driver could enjoy Formula 1's new cars more than previous generations and doubts tweaks made for the Miami Grand Prix will make a huge difference to the racing experience.
The reigning world champion has been one of the most outspoken critics of the sport's new ruleset, which has introduced new V6 hybrid turbo engines with an unprecedented focus on harvesting and deploying battery power.
McLaren's build-up to Sunday's race included a street demo with drivers Norris and Oscar Piastri in some of the team's old cars.
Norris managed to do burnouts and a few slow turns in a 2023 car, which led to an inevitable question about previous eras -- the British driver has previously said he feels like F1 went from the best cars to the worst with one regulation change.
"It's too impossible to compare," Norris said, given that he did not get a proper lap again in the 2023 car.
"If you ask me now, do I still enjoy the older cars more? Yes. I find it hard for anyone to say they enjoy driving these cars as much as previous generations ... I think it's obviously possible [someone else could feel that way].
"But it's still our job to adapt to these cars we have now. They're good in different ways. They should be getting better over time."
Minor rules tweaks have been made to quieten early negativity, especially around the lifting and coasting required in qualifying.
It seems unlikely the changes will make major differences -- four-time world champion Max Verstappen said on Thursday the tweaks were more like "a tickle" and that bigger revisions were needed to have a significant impact.
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Norris hopes qualifying -- where drivers had been excessively lifting and coasting through previously fast corners in order to generate energy -- is improved at least.
"It's tough to go that much further, honestly," he said when asked his verdict on the changes. "I think when you start to cover up some problems you also reveal other issues, so there's only so much you can do with the rules that you have to keep things.
"I think we would all love more in the direction that they've gone, but some of those are more hardware, bigger things. Those are hard things to change in the middle of a season when you have one team dominating and doing very well and other teams struggling.
"So it's difficult from that end to do a lot more but they've moved things in the right direction, especially for qualifying. The race really isn't going to be that different. Some things are not going to change that much. Qualifying should be a bit more flat-out qualifying style laps, which is a nice thing, it's what we wanted as drivers.
"I think we have to be happy with the amount of changes that they've done. Yes we would like more, but that's what we have to be pushing for."
