McLaren’s Norris added: “It’s tough to go that much further. There’s only so much you can do with the rules that you have to keep things within. We would all have liked more in the direction that they’ve gone.
“The race really isn’t going to be that different. So some things are not going to change that much, and the qualifying should be a bit more flat-out qualifying-style laps, which is a nice thing. It’s what we want [as] the drivers, so I think we have to be happy with the amount of changes that they’ve done.”
The new engines have a near 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power, and require significant energy management.
The changes have been targeted at reducing what have been described as “counter-intuitive” driving techniques, such as lifting off and coasting before corners in qualifying to charge the battery.
The other key focus was reducing the likelihood of speed differentials caused when one car is deploying all its 350kW (470bhp) of electrical power and another is deploying none because it is charging its battery.
Norris said: “We’ve done a good job in trying to improve things. The bigger things and the things we want more in the future are the things I’m going to take more time on.”
Norris was referring to the belief expressed by both his team principal Andrea Stella and Red Bull counterpart Laurent Mekies that hardware changes to the engine are needed to reduce the need for energy management further.
Specifically, that means changing the ratio between internal combustion and electrical power by increasing the power of the engine, probably by increasing the permitted fuel flow.
That cannot happen before next year because it has reliability implications with the current engines, and needs to be agreed by four of the five engine companies, as well as governing body the FIA and F1.
Verstappen said he had made no decisions on his future: “I still have time, and I’m taking my time.”
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