Lando Norris secures maiden championship in nail-biting Formula 1 finale

In 2017, McLaren signed 17-year-old Lando Norris to their Young Driver Programme. On 7 December 2025, eight years later, Norris became a Formula One world champion, the team’s first since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Talk about a return on investment.

Norris arrived in Abu Dhabi for the final race ahead of his title rivals on points. To win the championship, he only needed to cross the finish line third to secure the driver’s championship. But nothing was guaranteed. For the first time in years, the fight was down to three contenders, and Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen were on his heels. The pressure was on.

Verstappen, who had made a historic comeback to title contention, qualified just ahead on pole, quickly dispelling any hopes for Norris that he could claim an easy victory. Piastri, who had led the championship for a considerable chunk of the year, qualified right behind Norris in third.

From lights to flag, Verstappen demonstrated in real time why ruling him out of a title fight is a mistake, no matter how improbable the chances may be. He drove a dominant race, fending off Norris on the opening lap.

Piastri too was unwilling to let go of his title hopes, pulling a bold early move on his teammate that saw him take second place.

But both needed more than just excellent races to overtake Norris in the points; they needed Norris to fall significantly down the field, something that was ultimately out of their control.

For a moment, it seemed they might get their wish. An alternative strategy saw Norris stuck in a DRS train after his pit stop, forcing him to fight his way back up again. And then, after some impressive overtakes, the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was looming large in his mirrors. If the Monegasque caught up and snatched the final step on the podium, Verstappen could have a real chance of claiming his fifth driver’s championship.

While Verstappen and Piastri ahead crossed fingers, it was not meant to be. Verstappen beat Piastri to the chequered flag by 12 seconds, but Norris fended off the Ferrari by staying focused, precise and unflappable, crossing the line third to become the 35th new Formula 1 champion and the 11th from Britain.

Team effort

These nail-biting races that go down to the wire bring all the thrill and excitement of Formula 1 down to a single moment on the race track, but a championship is not won in one race.

Rather, it is the steady, excellent work of hundreds of people who work together to earn results. It is the dedication of a driver who shows up every weekend with determination and commitment to being better than the weekend before.

Norris’s championship fight was a key reminder of this. By the end of the year, it was actually Verstappen who had the most victories – eight to Norris’s seven – but when it comes to points, the McLaren driver proved the importance of consistency, using every moment on track to chip away at the championship lap by lap. That’s grit.

And this championship fight started way before 2025. When Norris joined the team in 2017, they were far from their glory days of old. The team that produced iconic champions such as Hamilton, Ayrton Senna and Mika Häkkinen was a midfield team struggling for points.

Norris’s victory is the result of a team that did not give up, choosing to foster young talent and work their way back up to the top, even if the journey takes years.

Norris captured this sentiment in his post-race interviews:

“I’ve dreamed of this for a long time, everyone does. A lot goes into a season like this, a lot of ups, a lot of downs, but none of that matters as long as you try and come out on top, and that’s what we managed to do with an incredible team.

“All the boys and girls that I’ve enjoyed so many moments with. It’s not just this year, it’s been over the last seven, eight years I’ve been with McLaren. The last 16, 17 years of my life I’ve been trying to chase this dream and today we all did it, so I’m pretty happy.”

With this spirit, Norris represents a different kind of driver. Former Formula 1 driver and champion Sebastian Vettel described the pressure drivers are under to never show weakness. “It was just like, you don’t talk about it and nobody did.”

In these conditions, Vettel believes that Norris operates differently.

Norris has been open about his struggles with anxiety, sparking a wider conversation about wellbeing in a cutthroat sport.

“We are all humans. We all have our problems that we’re facing. And it’s great to see Lando being such a role model inside Formula 1,” Vettel said, commenting on how “courageous” he finds Norris’s decision to “open up” about his mental health.

Best of the rest

McLaren leave Abu Dhabi with both a driver’s championship and a constructors’ championship, a sweet victory for a team that has fought for so long to rise back to the top. But it is bittersweet for Piastri who, in only his third season in Formula 1, had to say goodbye to his title hopes. His performance this year was instrumental in McLaren’s overall success, but he will be looking forward to a time when he gets to be crowned champion of the world.

“I knew that going into today I needed the stars to align to win the championship. Ultimately, I tried my best, I put myself in the best position I could to give myself the best opportunity I could, but it wasn’t to be,” the Australian said in his post-race interviews.

“I think we can be very proud of the season we’ve had. On a personal level, obviously not quite the ending that I wished for, but I think when you look at the season as a whole, I am very, very proud of the work I’ve been able to put in, that my team’s been able to put in to make so much progress from last year. I am looking forward to plenty more fights in the future.”

Verstappen, no longer champion of the world, echoed Piastri’s sentiments, admitting he “needed a bit of luck to win”, which just didn’t come his way this year.

Norris will soak up his victory and enjoy a well-deserved winter break, but the work is far from over. A regulation change for 2026 is overhauling the cars, and everyone will be on equal footing going into the new year as they all try to make sense of the shake-up. DM