Lando Norris didn’t try to dress it up: Formula 1 would feel smaller without Max Verstappen in it. And in the first proper stretch of the 2026 season — with the new rules already drawing groans up and down the pitlane — that’s a sentence carrying a bit more weight than the usual “we want to race the best” soundbite.
Verstappen has been publicly sour on the 2026 package since winter testing, memorably branding it “anti-racing”, and he hinted in Japan that his frustration could start dictating bigger life decisions. It’s not helped by the fact he’s never hidden how much he wants to go and do other things, in other paddocks, while he’s still at his peak. Last weekend he was out on the Nordschleife ahead of a planned Nürburgring 24 Hours debut next month — a reminder that, for him, F1 has always been part of the story, not the whole thing.
Norris, who ended Verstappen’s four-year run of world titles by taking the 2025 championship by two points, sounded less like an opponent enjoying the changing of the guard and more like someone who’s realised what the grid loses if the sport’s sharpest edge walks away.
“Max has earned the right to go and do whatever he wants,” Norris said. “He’s won four world championships.
“And he’s always been that guy. It’s not just now [that he’s speaking up]. He’s always been very open to say what he thinks.”
That’s the part people either love or can’t stand about Verstappen: there’s rarely any softness to his opinions, and he doesn’t calibrate them for the room. Norris, notably, didn’t ask him to. If anything, he framed it as a healthy instinct.
“Whether you agree or not or whether you should say it or shouldn’t, he’s himself and I think that’s a very good way to live your life,” he said.
But Norris went further than praising Verstappen’s bluntness. He was clear it would be “a shame for the sport” if the Dutchman decided he’d had enough, describing him as “one of the best drivers you’ll see in Formula 1 ever” — and, crucially, someone you actively want in your career timeline because it gives your own achievements their sharpest definition.
“It’ll be a shame for us, because I think as much as he makes our lives incredibly tough at times, he’s always good fun to race against,” Norris added. “It’s always cool to race against someone that’s won four championships.
“You always feel like you want to race against the best in the world and he certainly is one of them, so it would be a loss for the sport.”
There’s a little bit of self-interest in there — the sporting kind, not the political kind. Champions don’t want empty thrones; they want to win with the best still trying to take their head off. Norris is also honest enough to acknowledge that Verstappen leaving wouldn’t stop him watching. He joked that he’d enjoyed following the GT action at the weekend, and that if Verstappen headed down that road full-time, it’d at least give him “something to go watch” in other categories.
Underneath the humour is the more awkward reality: plenty of drivers share Verstappen’s unease about how 2026 feels to drive. Norris himself has already criticised the new cars, saying in Japan that it “hurts your soul” when they drop into super clipping and haemorrhage speed on the straights — hardly the sort of phrase you use if you’re trying to sell a new era.
Asked about Verstappen potentially stepping away, Norris linked it to that broader sense of comparison. The rookies coming in now, he argued, will naturally be impressed — because they don’t have 2022-25 in their muscle memory. The veterans do.
“It’s relative for people, because when you see the new guys who have come in and this is their first year in Formula 1, they’re like: ‘These cars are sick!’” Norris said. “For the guys who have driven last year’s cars and some of the previous ones, of course we have something to compare against.
“It’s all kind of relative for everyone, but hopefully things get better.”
That “hopefully” is doing a lot of work. F1 has sold 2026 as a reset worth enduring: new power units, new aero philosophy, a cleaner break from the current ground-effect era. Yet when the two most prominent drivers at McLaren — the reigning champion and the man alongside him — are both on record questioning how it drives, it’s not nothing. It’s not just Verstappen being Verstappen.
Even so, Norris doesn’t buy the idea that Verstappen is about to vanish. He pointed to comments from Verstappen suggesting he’s still motivated to chase a fifth world title and predicted he’ll stick around “longer than people say”.
Oscar Piastri, too, has been asked about what it would mean for F1 if Verstappen chose to go. His answer was blunt, and it wasn’t dressed up as concern for a rival team’s problems.
“It would be a shame if that does end up happening,” Piastri said. “I think it would be a shame for the sport to lose Max, especially at this point in his career as well… I think for everyone it would be a pretty big shame and obviously not a great look.”
Piastri also noted the current complexity of the regulations and the fact they’re “being worked on”, a diplomatic way of acknowledging what’s already obvious from the cockpit commentary: 2026 isn’t a finished product, even if the calendar keeps moving.
Verstappen is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2028. But anyone who’s watched F1 long enough knows contracts don’t guarantee desire — and desire, more than paperwork, is what keeps generational drivers turning up for yet another Thursday media pen.
For now, though, the more telling detail might be this: Norris, fresh off finally toppling him, isn’t celebrating the possibility of a Verstappen-less future. He’s arguing the opposite — that the sport, and the championship he now owns, is better with Verstappen still in the fight.
