Feb 19 (Reuters) - Formula One World champion Lando Norris said he had been amused by the reaction to his declaring the new 2026 cars fun to drive after Red Bull rival Max Verstappen stated the opposite.
Four times world champion Verstappen told reporters during pre-season testing in Bahrain last week that his car, the first of a new engine era for the sport, was like "Formula E on steroids" and not a lot of fun.
McLaren's Norris, who ended Verstappen's run of four titles in a row last year, had taken a contrary stance and suggested the Dutch driver could "go and find something else to do" if he was not happy.
The rivals' comments fuelled an already lively online debate about what racing will be like this season and how fans and drivers might react
"I just didn't want to come out to the media and complain to everyone on the first weekend back," Norris told reporters during testing on Thursday.
"It's been quite an amusing week seeing the reactions ... it's certainly made a lot of people comment and say a lot of things which has been pretty funny. I just wanted to see everyone's reaction."
Norris accepted that the new cars were very different to last year and "absolutely not" as enjoyable.
"Is it still a challenge and good fun out there? Yeah," he said. "I'm certainly not going to change my job for anything else.
"I still have fun and it's still the job that I love to do. But it's certainly very different."
Verstappen had suggested Norris was in a small pop-up tent, compared to the rest under a bigger canvas, when asked if there were two camps of opinion.
The Briton said he actually agreed with Verstappen on a lot of things.
"Probably most of the comments I agree with, but it's not that I don't have fun out there," he said.
The season starts in Melbourne on March 8.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
