Formula 1's amended regulations are still not providing the flat-out qualifying laps the sport needs, reigning champion Lando Norris has said.
Last weekend's Miami Grand Prix was the first to take place with minor changes to the controversial 2026 regulations, which were aimed at reducing some of the unusual and dangerous aspects of the new rules experienced at the first three races.
The tweaks included a reduction in the amount of electrical energy that can be recovered in qualifying (although the nature of the Miami circuit meant it was still set at eight megajoules as it was at the previous round in Suzuka) and upped the rate at which electrical energy can be recovered while the driver is on full throttle.
Those changes were aimed at reducing the unusual driving tactics that have become necessary to recharge the car's battery in qualifying, but Norris, who qualified fourth and finished second at the Miami Grand Prix, said they had not gone far enough.
"It's a small step in the right direction, but it's not to the level that Formula 1 should still be at yet," Norris said. "I think we said yesterday still in qualifying, if you go flat out everywhere and you try pushing like you were in previous years, you still just get penalized for it.
"You still can't be flat out everywhere -- it's not about being as early on throttle everywhere. You should never get penalized for that kind of thing and you still do.
"So honestly, I don't really think you can fix that. You just have to get rid of the battery. So hopefully in a few years, that's the case."
Other changes to the rules ahead of Miami were aimed at limiting the dangers posed by extreme closing speeds in races when one car is deploying electrical energy and the other is not.
Norris' McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri said the closing speeds he experienced were still significant and battery-powered overtakes were still responsible for the vast majority of position changes.
"The races are basically exactly the same, and I think today was my first proper experience of overtaking people and then having to defend and stuff like that," he said. "It's pretty crazy, to be honest.
"At one point George [Russell] was one second behind me and managed to overtake me by the end of that straight. And it's just a bit random. The closing speeds are huge and trying to anticipate that as the defending driver is incredibly tough to do.
- In Antonelli, Russell may have met his match -- and F1 may have its new superstar
- Kimi Antonelli stats: Jannik Sinner, iconic footsteps and a new F1 record broken after Miami Grand Prix
- 'How did we not win this?': Lando Norris 'gutted' after finishing 2nd at Miami Grand Prix
"Obviously for the overtaking driver, I wasn't that pleased with one of the moves that George did, but I kind of found myself almost doing the same move about five laps later, just because the closing speed is enormous.
"So from that side of things, not much has really changed. I think the collaboration again from the FIA and F1 has been good, but there's only so many things you can change with the hardware we have. So some changes in the future are I think still needed for sure. How quickly we can do it is the big question."
