- Lawson says F1 drivers will always complain, regardless of reg changes.
- A 50G crash in Japan has made safety the season’s most urgent concern.
- Regulation tweaks arrive at Miami, but the grumbling is far from over.
Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson says Formula 1 drivers will always find something to grumble about, no matter how the regulations change.
The New Zealander made the admission while speaking to the media during the 2026 season. His comments came amid a wave of criticism from drivers over F1’s sweeping regulatory overhaul this year.
The 2026 rules brought smaller, lighter cars and a near 50/50 split between internal combustion and electric power.
Drivers, including Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, have been vocal in their dissatisfaction since the season opened in Australia.
Verstappen compared the new cars to Formula E and Mario Kart, while Norris questioned the power unit’s influence on driving.
Lawson, however, took a different approach.
Lawson: Drivers will always want more
The Racing Bulls driver was candid about the nature of driver discontent. He acknowledged that wanting more from the car is simply part of being a racing driver.
“At the end of the day, there’s always going to be things that we want from the car,” the New Zealander said via RacingNews365. “As racing drivers, we kind of complain about everything, so I think that’ll never change.”
His admission carried weight because he has not been unaffected by the frustrations himself.
After the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, Lawson said he was “mentally drained” by the demands of the new cars.
He described the experience as “very intense,” with far more for drivers to manage behind the wheel compared to previous seasons.
Still, he drew a clear line between routine grumbling and complaints that genuinely matter.
Safety first, performance second
For Lawson, safety sits in a different category from performance concerns. He pointed to Oliver Bearman’s crash during the Japanese Grand Prix as the clearest example of why.
Bearman went onto the grass at over 190mph while trying to avoid Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, who was slowing down near Spoon Curve. The impact registered at 50G.
The speed difference between the two cars was approximately 50km/h. Bearman attributed it to what he called “a massive delta speed that we’ve never seen before in F1 until these new regulations.”
The near equal split between combustion and electrical power means drivers must constantly harvest energy, creating unpredictable speed gaps between cars.
Lawson was direct about where the sport’s focus should be.
“On the regulation side, the biggest thing right now is probably the safety aspect of it, especially with what we saw in Japan,” he said. “I think that’s something that we want to avoid in the future going forward.”
Hope on the horizon
Lawson did not stop at criticism. He pointed to how previous regulation cycles in F1 had followed a familiar path: early resistance, then gradual improvement over time.
“If you look at any other regulation, the start of it, there’s been a huge sort of development over the five-year process,” he said. “So, I’m sure these will obviously evolve and get faster, and I’m sure we’ll find ways to make the cars nicer to drive.”
He singled out qualifying as an area where drivers are still struggling to get the best from the new machinery. Heavy energy management has stopped drivers from pushing flat out over a single lap.
“I hope that we do, because I think at the moment, especially in qualifying, we’re trying to put the car on the limit and extract everything out of it in ways that at the moment it feels like we’re not able to do that,” he said.
Where Lawson fits in the bigger picture
Lawson’s tone has been noticeably more measured than that of some of his peers. Verstappen has been the most outspoken critic of the new era.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has urged drivers and teams to keep complaints internal, calling on all parties to act as “guardians” of the sport rather than airing grievances publicly.
Lawson threaded a different needle. He accepted that drivers will grumble while also making clear that the safety concerns are real and deserve attention.
Planned tweaks to the regulations, agreed during the April break, are due to take effect at the Miami Grand Prix weekend in May.
Whether those changes quiet the criticism remains to be seen. But if Lawson is right, the complaints will keep coming regardless, and the sport will keep moving forward because of them.
