Lando Norris in dramatic U-turn just weeks before start of F1 season - 'Definitely not'

Norris initially clapped back at his rival, saying: "If he wants to retire, he can." But the defending champion has now admitted he is also enjoying being behind the wheel a lot less than before, as testing continues in Bahrain this week.

He said on Thursday: "Honestly, I just wanted to say that. I didn't want to complain about anything, I just wanted to say it and see what everyone's reaction would be. So it's been quite an amusing week watching how people reacted. It certainly made a lot of people comment and say all sorts of things, which has been pretty funny.

"The cars are very different. Are they as enjoyable and as good to drive as last year? Absolutely not. Is it still a challenge and good fun out there? 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. Is it as pure, is it as beautiful to drive as last year? Does it look as incredible? Definitely not.

"I agree with Max on a lot of comments – probably most of them – but it's not that I don't have fun out there. There are two sides. I do agree with basically every other driver because I think every other driver has made their comments pretty clear. I just didn't want to come out to the media and complain to everyone on the first weekend back. I want to still enjoy my time and just say what I feel.

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"As a championship, and with the FIA and Formula 1, we're trying to improve the car that we have now because it's certainly not the purest form of racing and that's what Formula 1 should be. A lot of the driving is focused on just trying to get the battery to work properly and less focused on, how can you as a driver get everything out of the car? So, I completely agree with a lot of the comments."

As for his McLaren team's performance so far in testing, Norris said he is full of confidence but acknowledged: "At the minute, we're a little bit off. So to match the race pace of some of the others, we have to push a but more and then we have more [tyre] degradation.

"It's not as simple as just continuing from last year and saying it's the same thing again. At the minute we have to improve the car quite a bit if we want to compete a bit more to be confident for the first race, but I feel confident. I feel better than I've ever done... but it's a long season. I'll make sure I do my part."