Lando Norris: F1 competitors at the ‘mercy’ of power units, it’s ‘not true racing’
Lando Norris remarked that there were instances during the Japanese Grand Prix when he felt “at the mercy” of his McLaren’s power unit, and at one point, he overtook Lewis Hamilton unexpectedly.
Norris secured fifth place at Suzuka after prevailing in a contest against Hamilton’s Ferrari in the final laps of the race.
During the multi-lap duel, Norris passed Hamilton into the last chicane, only to be overtaken by the Ferrari again as they approached Turn 1.
Such occurrences, where a driver exhausts their battery to execute an overtaking maneuver and is subsequently repassed due to insufficient power on the following straights, have been referred to as yo-yo racing.
Norris expressed that his experience at Suzuka was particularly unsettling, as he had not planned to overtake Hamilton into the final chicane but was compelled to do so when his power unit activated full battery power.
“Honestly, some of the racing, I didn’t even intend to overtake Lewis; it’s just that my battery deploys, and I don’t want it to deploy, but I can’t control it,” he stated. “So I pass him, and then I have no battery left, so he just zooms past.”
“This is not racing; this is yo-yoing. Even if he [Hamilton] claims it’s not, it is yo-yoing. When you’re just at the mercy of whatever the power unit provides, the driver should have some control over it, and we don’t.”
“Yes, the racing may appear exciting on TV, but the experience inside the car is certainly not as genuine as it ought to be.”
Norris further elaborated that he had to ease off the throttle into the high-speed 130R corner to prevent a collision with Hamilton, which caused his power unit to fully deploy its electrical boost when he next accelerated.
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“The issue is, it deploys into 130R; I have to lift, or else I’ll collide with him, and I’m not permitted to reapply the throttle,” he explained. “If I reapply the throttle, my battery deploys, and I don’t want it to deploy because it should have cut off, but since you lift, and then have to get back on it, it redeploys.”
“There’s nothing I can do about it, so there’s just not enough control for a driver, and that’s why you’re too much at the mercy of what’s behind you, and that’s simply not how it should be.”
Source: espn.com
