Lando Norris responds to Max Verstappen’s criticism of new F1 cars: ‘He can retire’

Lando Norris has batted away Max Verstappen’s criticism of this year’s Formula 1 cars, simply saying of his rival: “He can retire if he wants.”

Four-time world champion Verstappen was critical of this year’s new generation of F1 cars at pre-season testing on Thursday, claiming they are “anti-racing” and labelling the new focus on energy management as “like Formula E on steroids.”

Verstappen also did not rule out walking away from the sport, if the new cars are “not fun to drive”, and is already participating in endurance racing at the Nurburgring alongside his F1 commitments.

Yet Norris, who pipped Verstappen to last year’s world championship by two points, does not agree with his rival and was dismissive of the Red Bull driver’s comments.

"I had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it," Norris said on Thursday evening. "So yeah, if he wants to retire he can retire.

"Formula 1 changes all the time, sometimes it's a bit better to drive, sometimes not as good to drive. But yeah, we get paid a stupid amount of money to drive so you can't really complain at the end of the day.

"Any driver can go and find something else to do, you know? It's not like he has to be here or any driver has to be here.

"It's a challenge but it's a good fun challenge for the engineers, for the drivers. It's different, you have to drive it in a different way and understand things differently and manage things differently. But you still get to drive cars and travel the world and have a lot of fun. So, no nothing to complain about."

Despite Verstappen’s protestations, initial impressions are that Red Bull look like a top contender, with superior straight-line speed so far in Bahrain, in what is their first year producing their own power unit alongside Ford.

McLaren, who are using Mercedes engines, look there or thereabouts so far, and Norris insisted Verstappen will be as competitive as ever come the first race in Australia on 8 March.

"I don't expect Max is going to go out and not give a s***, you know?" he said. “He's going to try and win and Max is never going to not try, he's just not going to smile as much maybe - I guess that might be the case.

"It certainly doesn't feel as quick as the past few years and it certainly doesn't handle as perfectly, but I'm sure if he came into this and this was the F1 car he started driving then he probably would say it's amazing.

"Comparing to the older cars, it doesn't feel as pretty and beautiful to drive, but it's still pretty good. And it's all early days, it's early days of a regulation that's meant to be a good amount slower.

"But if you fast forward to the end of this year and look ahead to next year already, we're going to be going a lot quicker by then. Anyone and everyone can make their own opinions and have their own opinions, and say and decide what they want to do.

"No one should complain about that or be upset about it. Every driver has their own opinions and he didn't like it and I like it."