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Max Verstappen says the new cars in Formula 1 this year are “not a lot of fun” and “like Formula E on steroids” – but Lando Norris disagrees.

Four-time world champion Verstappen says the increased demands for energy management with new hybrid engines are “just not Formula 1”.

But Norris – who pipped Verstappen to the 2025 title by two points – argued the new cars were “a lot of fun”, adding: “Any driver can go and find something else to do. It’s not like he has to be here or any driver has to be here.”

The new engines are energy starved because of the way the rules have been structured and require several kinds of recovery to ensure the battery has sufficient levels of charge for optimum lap times.

This is leading to unusual forms of driving, such as not accelerating out of the final corner before a qualifying lap, lifting and coasting to save energy when trying for ultimate performance, and changing down to lower gears in corners for optimum energy harvesting.

Verstappen, whose team have built their own engine for the first time this season, said: “The right word is management. But on the other hand, I also know how much work has been going on in the background. Also from the engine side, for the guys. So it’s not always the nicest thing to say.

“But I also want to be realistic. As a driver, the feeling is not very Formula 1-like. It feels a bit more like Formula E on steroids.

“As a pure driver, I enjoy driving flat out. And at the moment, you cannot drive like that. There’s a lot going on.

“A lot of what you do as a driver, in terms of inputs, has a massive effect on the energy side of things.

But Norris said: “A lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. Formula 1 changes all the time. Sometimes it’s a bit better to drive, sometimes not as good to drive.

“But we get paid a stupid amount of money to drive so we can’t really complain in the end of the day.

“It’s a challenge, but it’s a good, fun challenge for the engineers and the drivers.

“It’s different. You have to drive it in a different way and understand things differently and manage things differently.

“But I still get to drive cars and travel the world and have a lot of fun, so, no, nothing to complain about.”

Verstappen said his concern was that the new cars were moving away from what would traditionally be expected of an F1 driver.

Verstappen added: “All the good drivers will be able to adapt to it. That’s not the problem, but it’s just the whole way of racing is changing, and I would say less pure.

“I just want normal driving, just how it should be, without having to [think] ‘oh, if I brake a bit longer or less or more, or one gear up or down’, you know, stuff like that, that it so heavily impacts the performance on the straights.”

The all-electric Formula E series has become known for featuring heavy energy management to ensure cars can get to the end of the races without running out of charge.

F1 is not in the same situation. Rather than a single amount of charge that depletes from maximum to empty from the beginning of the race to the end as in Formula E, the batteries in F1 will go from full charge to very low and back again several times a lap.

Senior figures in F1 have cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the new rules at such an early stage when everything about the cars is new.

The biggest regulation change in F1 history has this year seen new rules for chassis, engines, tyres and the introduction of sustainable fuels.

The engines have a near 50-50 split between the internal combustion and electrical parts and have three times as much electrical power as last year with a battery of more or less the same size.

There are ways the rules could have been constructed to ensure energy management was not such a feature, for example by slightly reducing the power of the hybrid element and allowing the engines to use more fuel, or even by allowing recovery of energy from the front axle as well as the rear. But none of those have so far been allowed.

On the chassis side, a straight-line mode has been introduced which reduces drag from the front and rear wings specifically to aid energy recovery. The tyres have been made narrower for the same reasons. And the cars are smaller and lighter and have less grip and downforce.

The cars recover energy in four ways:

Verstappen is considering competing in the Nurburgring 24 Hours at the famous 14-mile long Nordschleife circuit this year in a GT car – a modified road car.

It felt like the moment the baton was passed on.

Chloe Kim, the greatest women’s halfpipe snowboarder, and Choi Ga-on, the young protege, standing side by side on the podium.

It was expected to be a procession for American Kim to win a third consecutive Winter Olympic gold, a feat no snowboarder has ever achieved. And yet it was 17-year-old Choi on the top step.

The South Korean had defied a brutal fall in her opening run to score 90.25 points on her final attempt, a total 25-year-old Kim could not better.

It was, as Kim told BBC Sport, a “full circle moment”.

The two had met nine years ago, at a test event in Pyeongchang before the 2018 Games in which Kim, then also aged 17, would announce herself on a global stage with her first Olympic gold.

Realising her potential, Kim and her father helped Choi to travel to the United States to train.

Kim’s father, who is from South Korea, was one of the first to embrace Choi and her emotional team after her Olympic gold was confirmed.

“She’s someone I’ve known since she was little,” said Kim.

Olympic gold marks the realisation of Choi’s potential, a name that has been on the lips of many in the snowboard world for some time but is now catapulted into global consciousness.

In 2023, aged just 14, Choi won X Games superpipe gold, breaking Kim’s record as the youngest rider to win the title.

That same year, she won the first World Cup she entered but was later ruled out of the remainder of that season after fracturing her back.

This Olympic season, however, she underlined her ability by winning every World Cup she entered coming into the Games.

She had managed only sixth in qualification on Wednesday as Kim topped the pile with a score of 90.25 – the exact score Choi would win gold with little more than 24 hours later.

But her final looked to be over on her very first run when she hit the icy lip of the pipe and flipped into its centre, lying motionless for some time.

As heavy snow fell, she eventually brushed herself down and later stunned the onlooking crowd with her spellbinding third run, her coach bursting into tears at the realisation of what Choi had achieved.

“It’s the kind of story you only see in dreams, so I’m incredibly happy,” said Choi.

“During the final, mentally it was so tough. But right now I am the happiest.

“My knees are a bit bad, but I feel like I’m overcoming it all with happiness.”

She later said: “After the first run, I actually cried really hard, thinking maybe I should just quit the Olympics here.

For Kim, the build-up to the Games had been far from ideal.

With just one competition under her belt this season, she dislocated her shoulder and sustained a torn labrum in what she described as the “silliest fall” in training in Switzerland last month.

In Livigno she was competing with her shoulder in a brace but showed little sign of it affecting her.

Watched on by Team USA ‘honorary coach’ Snoop Dogg and snowboarding legend Shaun White in Thursday’s final, the eight-time X Games champion had looked set for gold after her opening run scored 88.00, with few coming close.

But Choi’s last score, met by both cheers and gasps of shock from the onlooking crowd, piled the pressure on Kim, only for a fall – one of many in what was a chaotic final – to ensure she would leave an Olympics with silver for the very first time.

Japan’s Mitsuki Ono took bronze with a score of 85.00.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Kim – who will now have surgery on her shoulder – said: “I’m so proud of myself.

“There was a lot of conversation about me [attempting to win a third gold] but honestly I’m just so glad I was able to get here.

“I think this one might mean more than the others. I think I put it all out there.

“In the past, I would take a cautious approach and ride to win, but these days I’ve just wanted to do what felt good and I feel like I really gave it my all.

Thomas Tuchel says he extended his contract as England manager through to Euro 2028 because of the “amazing group of players” at his disposal.

The German took charge in January 2025 and his time as Three Lions boss had originally been set to end after this summer’s World Cup.

However, the 52-year-old admitted his “connection to the players and to the job itself” had grown as England claimed eight wins from eight matches to waltz through qualifying for the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

“The main reasons I took the job in the first place were the players,” Tuchel said.

“I wanted to be around this amazing group of players. I wanted to coach these characters that I already knew from the Premier League.

“I love the group of players. I love the characters, I love being in charge. I felt the passion in the country when the Euros were held at Wembley. From there it was more a dream than a reality.

“I’m very grateful for the support and trust of the FA and we will put all the effort in to make everyone proud and to keep on going.”

When Tuchel accepted the England job, it was his first incursion into the international arena.

Having enjoyed success with the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Paris St-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich, he has adapted seamlessly to a different type of challenge away from the day-to-day issues he faced at clubs.

“We didn’t know exactly what was coming as an international manager,” Tuchel added.

“It was basically the point why I voted strongly for only 18 months contract in the first place, because I said ‘Listen, I have never done this. Can I first make sure that I love this and that I feel committed to the team, and I feel connected to the team’, because I think that is needed to be the best version of myself.

“It took me some months to understand it but as soon as the more condensed period arrived in September, October, November, it was the period where I felt the strongest connection to the players and to the job itself. And from there on I was fully committed to go even further.”

With the 2028 European Championship finals being hosted by England, Wales, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, the temptation of leading a side into a home Euros, with the Football Association keen to back their man, also proved an irresistible reason for Tuchel to stay on.

“We had an excellent qualifying campaign, and both sides wanted to complete the cycle,” he added.

While some may draw parallels to the situation England faced after handing Fabio Capello a lucrative new deal prior to 2010 World Cup in South Africa, there can be no question that the FA’s move does at least provide some continuity and clarity in the short to medium term.

Having been strongly linked with Manchester United, where Michael Carrick is in charge until the end of the season, both Tuchel and the FA appear content to have removed any potential distractions heading into the World Cup.

“It didn’t have to be done, but it was a very positive, very welcome side-effect of it,” Tuchel added.

“It was the opposite, very important for me that we don’t do it just to have clarity in the World Cup, but we do it if we are convinced, and [FA CEO] Mark Bullingham especially made this very clear from the beginning.

“But it is, no doubt, a very welcome side-effect that we have clarity, no more speculation, no more rumours.

“There was no reason to be worried because I was obviously totally focused through the qualification period and right after that we started the talks. I was always committed to this idea of extending the contract, the FA were always committed – there were no games, no second thoughts.

With question marks removed over his own future, Tuchel will soon have to navigate the recurring issues his predecessors have faced leading England into major tournaments.

That includes managing expectation levels and selection connundrums that appear to be commonplace whenever England are readying themselves for a World Cup or Euros.

And he appears to be relishing the prospect of making those decisions with Manchester United trio Kobbie Mainoo, Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw all likely to come into his thinking, having not featured under the German so far.

A change of manager and system has allowed Mainoo – a starter in the Euro 2024 final – to showcase his talent again after he was mystifyingly banished from United’s starting XI under former boss Ruben Amorim.

Meanwhile, Shaw and Maguire have impressed under Carrick, with Tuchel assessing all three players in United’s 1-1 draw at West Ham on Tuesday.

When questioned about Mainoo, Tuchel continued: “Absolutely back in the frame! First of all, it is great that he is back on the pitch. He is such a huge talent.

“He has already played a tournament from start to finish for England, so he is back in the picture, so is Luke Shaw and so is Harry Maguire.