How Norris achieved his lifetime's ambition by 'winning it my way'

Lando Norris

The adrenaline beginning to drain out of him, but the euphoria of winning a first world title still very much present, Lando Norris was in reflective mood as he discussed what achieving his lifetime's ambition meant to him.

"I just won it my way," the McLaren driver said. "I'm happy I could go out and be myself."

"I feel like I have just managed to win it the way I wanted to win it, which was not by being someone I'm not. Not trying to be as aggressive as Max [Verstappen] or as forceful as other champions might have been in the past – whatever it may be. My style of just trying to be a good person and a good team member."

The 26-year-old Briton did a lot of talking after climbing out of his car in Abu Dhabi, where his third-place finish in the 2025 season finale ensured he beat Verstappen to the championship by just two points.

That is the way of things in F1, where drivers have to finish their media commitments before getting down to the business of celebrating their success.

Among the thousands of words that came out of Norris' mouth, these were among the most fitting comments at the end of a season that has in many ways reflected his journey to the top.

It has not been easy. There have been bumps in the road. Some even feel Red Bull's Verstappen would have been a more worthy champion, given his revival in the final third of the season.

While Verstappen mounted one of the all-time great comebacks from the start of September, Norris weathered an early rough patch, and rode his own concurrent wave of momentum all the way to ultimate success in Abu Dhabi, in a race that, while tense, always felt like he had it under control.

After he celebrated on the podium, where he was drenched in champagne by race-winner Verstappen and McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, as the three title contenders finished at the front just as they had started the race, you could almost feel Norris coming to terms with his achievement in real time as he discussed how he had got to where he had.

There were some very touching comments about how much it meant to him to make so many people who were important to him happy, especially his parents and his colleagues at McLaren.

"I feel proud but not because I'm going to wake up tomorrow and go, 'I beat everyone,'" he said. "I'm not proud because I get to just say I'm a world champion. I'm proud because I feel like I made a lot of other people happy."

And as he talked, he began to open up on who he is, his honesty, his determination to be true to himself and his wish to be open about his feelings, even the difficult ones, a trait for which he has been criticised from time to time.

"Could I have gone out and been more of that person you probably want me to be at times? I could have done," he said.

"I would have been less proud about it in some ways. So, that's why I'm very happy with myself. I kept my cool, I kept to myself, I kept the focus on myself, and I got the most out of how I am."

'The struggles turned into strength'

Norris started the season as favourite, after McLaren's strong end to 2024, but after winning the first race, he went through a rough patch and Piastri moved into a comfortable lead.

Norris was not at one with the car, was finding it difficult to feel the front axle when he was trying to take it to the limit in qualifying. That led to mistakes - even a big crash in Saudi Arabia - and when you start behind in modern F1, you tend to finish there.

But he and McLaren worked at it. The team came up with a tweak to the front suspension aimed at improving feel. It was a small thing. It made a small difference, but a barely perceptible one.

From there, he slowly improved, began to build momentum, but it was more about the work he was putting in behind the scenes.

He knew what he needed to be better at, and he worked on it, on adapting to the car, on not being alarmed that it felt slightly different from what he wanted.

It was a mental approach as much as a change in driving, and slowly it began to make a difference.

"It started after I had that kind of bad run in race two, three, four, five, six, that kind of area," he said. "Or certainly when it was like, 'All right, my way is not working. I've got to understand things differently. I've got to speak to more people. I've got to understand what I'm thinking, why I'm thinking it. Why am I doing this? Why am I getting tense in qualifying? Why am I making the decisions that I'm making?' Whatever it may be.

"Certainly, the bad run of results and lack of performance - not speed, because I think the speed's always there - but lack of putting things together when I had the capability of putting things together, allowed or opened up the doors to go and understand: "OK, I need to do more than just try again next weekend. I need to try and understand things on a deeper level.'

"That opened up understanding myself more, understanding things more at a championship level. That's the level I've got to be at.

"And yes, certainly the struggles turned into strength. So I would say, if I didn't have those struggles at the beginning and then had the weakness at the end, would I have caught on to those things as quickly? Probably not."