Under the warm glow of the Yas Marina lights on Sunday evening, Lando Norris finally got to breathe.
After years of hard work, heartbreaks, and questions about whether he was too clean, too fair, or not aggressive enough for Formula 1’s ruthless ecosystem, the McLaren driver capped his season with the most powerful vindication imaginable: a world championship won on his own terms.
The 25-year-old’s maiden title – secured with a measured but nerve-wracking drive to third place in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – denied Max Verstappen by just two points and put Oscar Piastri 13 behind.
But for Norris, the numbers weren’t the story. The manner of the achievement was.
‘I won it the way i wanted to win it’
Facing reporters in a solo press conference, still flushed from his victory lap through the paddock, Norris made it clear that what mattered most wasn’t beating the field – it was staying true to himself.
“That's one of the things that makes me most proud,” he began.
“I feel like I've just managed to win it the way I wanted to win it, which was not by being someone I'm not - like trying to be as aggressive as Max, or as forceful as all the champions might have been in the past, whatever it may be.”
Critics have long accused Norris of being too polite, too clean-cut in wheel-to-wheel combat. He admitted there were moments this season when a harder edge might have served him – but he never wanted to win by betraying his instincts.
“I'm happy. I just won it my way. I'm happy I could go out and be myself and win it 'Lando's way', as Andrea [Stella] would tell me.”
Then came a moment of striking honesty.
“At the beginning, could I have gone out and been more of that person you probably want me to be? At times, I could have done. But I would have been less proud about it in some ways.
“So that's why I'm very happy with myself in terms of I kept my cool. I kept the focus on myself and I got the most out of how I am.”
And if his first championship sparks pressure to reinvent himself?
“I really hope it doesn't change anything I do, the way I think, the way I do things. I believe I've won the championship this year my way by being a fair driver, by trying to be an honest driver,” he said.
Proud to Make Others Happy
For Norris, the triumph resonates far beyond his own name. He sees it as a shared victory – a repayment for the years of trust, toil and sleepless nights endured by those around him.
He joined McLaren as a development driver back in 2017. The people who first opened the door for him have become, in many ways, a second family – and this championship, he insisted, belongs to them too.
©McLaren
“I feel proud, but I don't feel proud because I'm going to wake up tomorrow and go 'I beat everyone', and I'm not proud because I get to just say I'm a world champion,” Norris explained.
“I'm proud because I just feel like I made a lot of other people happy. I made my engineer, Will [Joseph], Jarv [Andrew Jarvis, performance engineer] as well.”
Then came perhaps the most heartfelt moment of his championship evening.
“They don't get to see their family much. They've seen me grow up more than they've seen their own kids grow up. I feel bad about that,” he added.
“But the fact that they put so much effort into making me perform and helping us all perform, I get to make them feel like their time has been hopefully a little bit worth it. That's what makes me so happy.”
For all the intensity surrounding this year’s championship showdown, Norris emerged with something rare in modern F1: a title earned without sacrificing who he is.
No elbows-out reinvention. No imitation of the sport’s bruising champions. Just a young driver trusting that the right way – his way – could still be enough.
And in Abu Dhabi, it finally was.
Read also: Emotional Norris pays tribute to McLaren team and family
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