Lando Norris: F1 car changes caused my incessant back pain

Formula 1 transitioned to ground-effect-based cars last year, which were configured with an extremely stiff setup to maximise downforce. However, this setup unintentionally led to a phenomenon known as porpoising, where drivers experienced violent bouncing on the straights.

Beyond the well-documented bouncing effect, the low ride heights of these cars generally made them significantly less comfortable to drive, subjecting drivers to increased forces on their backs.

Norris has disclosed that the McLaren he drove last year left him in a state of continuous discomfort, necessitating extensive collaboration with both his team and personal trainer to address and alleviate his back problems.

"I have to stretch morning and evening, before every session. If I don't then I always struggle a lot more with my back," said Norris, as quoted by Motorsport.com

"It's not just racing. It's just something that I've had to work on in general anyway. But it's definitely not helped by some of the changes on the car over the last couple of years.

"It got to a pretty bad point last year, every day I was struggling with sleep and everything... just in constant pain.

"I think a lot of things have already been put in place like I made a couple of new seats already. It was worse last year than it is this year.

"If I want it to get better, I've got to do other things, rather than just trying to make the seat better and allow the car to somehow get better over time. It's not going to be the case.

"I'm limiting a lot more things. I'm playing a lot less golf just because of my back, doing more physio. Some things I have to crank up and some things I have to pay the price for, like playing golf or certain sports.

"Even track walks, as soon as I do a track walk, I struggle a lot, so I've had to cut down on track walks, little things that have helped me quite a bit just to struggle less.

"I'm in a much better position now. I mean, I would love to play more golf as well! And even with cycling and running my back hurts, so I still can't do everything I would want to do."

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