Lando Norris is the world champion. Now what next?
McLaren driver Lando Norris was officially crowned 2025 world champion at the FIA's awards ceremony on December 12
Now it feels real.
Lando Norris collected the F1 world championship trophy at Friday’s FIA prize-giving gala in Uzbekistan. How might winning the F1 2025 title change him? Simple: now he knows for sure he can take on the likes of Max Verstappen and win.
Lando Norris could be elevated to a whole new level as world champion
A version of this article originally appeared in PlanetF1.com’s conclusions from the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Lando Norris has always been a fascinating driver to watch by traditional F1 standards.
All the talent in the world, but with only a fraction of the self-belief.
Usually in sport one thing tends to lead to another: talent breeds performance, breeds confidence, breeds even more performance.
Yet Lando?
Somehow he’s always needed convincing all over again every time he lowers himself into the cockpit of a racing car.
Lando Norris vs Oscar Piastri: McLaren head-to-head scores for F1 2025
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
It was, fittingly for a driver with the Gen Z touch, one of the first series of Drive to Survive that truly opened eyes to the extent of his crushing – at times debilitating – self-doubt.
One particular scene revealed how Lando effectively locked himself in his room inside McLaren’s hospitality unit at the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix, muttering that he was “one-nil down” already to Daniel Ricciardo after their first qualifying session together as teammates.
The gap between them that day, you ask? A mere half a tenth.
Norris soon put that right, leaving Daniel behind in the race to set the tone for a season in which he surgically removed Ricciardo’s mojo.
Turned out that Lando didn’t know his own strength. His worst fears were proven to be totally unfounded.
But his highly emotional, disproportionate response to a single qualifying result at the start of a new season raised an interesting question: if he was like this after a relatively minor setback, how exactly would he react to real moments of adversity?
Watching Oscar Piastri come along and beat him to a first victory for McLaren at the Qatar sprint race – a disappointment he seemed to take particularly personally – in 2023?
All the various missed opportunities of 2024, culminating in that wretched, rainy afternoon in Brazil?
Watch our drifting finale with V14
Look for the signs and it is something both he and McLaren have become mindful of, and sought to manage, over the years.
It was revealing, for instance, when Zak Brown said last winter that the team had decided against keeping Norris informed of the race situation with the constructors’ title on the line in Abu Dhabi.
See also Norris’s recent revelation that he removed the delta time on his steering wheel in qualifying earlier this season, similarly allowing him to concentrate on the simple act of driving without worrying about what it all might mean.
Together they have worked on his weaknesses and tried keep his job as simple and straightforward as possible.
So much so that when Norris was last confronted with real, potentially season-defining disappointment with his retirement at Zandvoort, it was not the end of his world but, instead, the best thing that ever happened to him.
Finally, having been stifled by the scrutiny and pressure of the title fight almost all year long with only fleeting moments of relief, Lando was liberated.
And there is nothing more lethal than a racing driver with nothing left to lose.
The title may have only been secured in Abu Dhabi, but it was those nerveless, un-Landolike victories in Mexico and Brazil – now rising to the challenge in scenarios in which he had previously crumbled – that pulled him clear.
The exciting thing is that Norris remains so perfectly imperfect.
Even at the end of his seventh full season, even with a world championship already to his name, still he is a work in progress.
There is potential in there still untapped. His main limitations are still under maintenance.
Perhaps the true value of this title triumph, then, will be found not in the achievement itself and the feel of that trophy in his hands, but in what it might do to him and how it might transform him.
The confidence it will bring. The inner peace. The self-assurance and self-satisfaction.
He’s always struggled to see it for himself.
Maybe now, though, Lando will finally realise just how good he really is.
Reader reaction:
Andy: Lando has joined the greats. It takes a great champion to reflect on things that he has said in the past about HAM but until you become champion the pressure of the new achievement forges a new path.
Lando wants to be a great champion, one that is respected…he will achieve more in the future.
Bob Terry: Lando was very fortunate to get away with no penalty after an off-circuit overtake. British media conveniently ignoring this issue.
KFBR392: Congratulations to Lando! It’s nice to see a different champion. McLaren really lucked out here. They really stumbled over the finish line for the WDC.
Paul James: Max was excellent! Lando was good – congrats to him.
SennaSpeed: The first title is always the most difficult to win. Lando will go into 2026 with more confidence & now that he has achieved a lifetime ambition, everything else will be a bonus.
If the Merc is by far the best engine next year & McLaren build a good chassis, who is to say he won’t repeat his success with a second WDC. It will be fascinating to watch.
Sam: There is a slight bitter taste to this WDC for me, Lando is a good driver, to get into a top car and stay there for 5 seasons isn’t because everyone else forgot to sack him.
Yes Max could look at Barcelona with regret, but McLaren pulling Oscar back to let Norris back into the game at Monza doesn’t really leave a good taste in the mouth, both drivers had a bloody good shot at the crown, and to manufacture it so that only one of them is allowed that shot takes the shine off, Norris taking 5 full years to get near the title reflects for me.
Piastri, yes maybe he would have gone off the boil after the European season anyway, but it does look strongly after Monza that McLaren turned his heat down significantly, for me Piastri is a better overall driver, in the same way that Max took a few years to temper that naive arrogance maybe next year’s the year Oscar works out his foibles and flexes his muscles properly.
We will see, but this year feels like McLaren were at their limits to get Norris a cup, all this hyperbole about a Hollywood season doesn’t wash for me 21 was a far better season for drama.
GPS tracker: Congrats to Lando – feels very much like the WDCs Hill and Button. Took advantage of a very good car but unlikely to sustain for years.
Max again just displaying his skill level way beyond anyone else on the grid.
Matt: I was never a Hamilton fan, but I’ve respected him, his wins and championships. I never liked Schumacher, but same – OK, he deserved it.
But with Norris… I don’t think I remember a champion that was as “blah” as Norris and as average as him.
When you think of Verstappens, Alonsos or Raikkonens of this world (not to mention Senna, Prost…) you may like them, love them or hate them, but they are what a champion should be.
With Norris, I feel like everyone at McLaren (including his team mate) had to manage his mood especially on his bad days, everyone had to protect him, not tell him the truth about what’s happening on the track, so he doesn’t fall into pieces.
I love F1 but I feel like the sport, with all its luck, and bad luck, the talent, the speed, the expected and the unexpected… was abused by McLaren as they tried to fix games and make sure they will elevate this average guy in an exceptional car to a championship.
I am not saying there was a conspiracy theory at McLaren against Piastri. No, there was no conspiracy theory. There was an obvious plan to do everything, including sacrificing the other driver, taking the spirit out of the sport, to calculate the result, fix the game, to help a person unable to simply win a championship become a champion.
Like Max said, if it was him driving McLaren the game would be over for weeks now. I really feel that Norris has been unable to win this on merit, based on his performance. Everyone around him had to work hard to manipulate race results, introduce rules and politics, to make sure he has a shot at it (and still, he BARELY made it).
And I even like Norris. I just don’t think he is a CHAMPION. He simply barely won the championship thanks to a lot of manipulation.
Super Dave Osborne: Norris should realize just how lucky he is.
Marius_R: McLaren and Lando did everything they needed to do in Abu Dhabi, when they needed to do it. No mistakes, solid pit stops and a clever split strategy, under immense pressure.
Yes, they made it harder for themselves than it needed to be, at certain points during the season, but they pulled through when it mattered most.
At the end of the day, the history books don’t account for nuances or “what if” scenarios. McLaren are champions, and Lando is champion. All’s well, that ends well.
Mark: Amazing effort by Lando, not only beating his team mate but Max as well. The reaction world wide has been incredible, he’s extremely well liked.
Fire Storm: I am very curious to see the development of Norris and Piastri in the upcoming season/s.
The aura of the world champion should help Lando’s confidence. As for Oscar, he knows that he is more efficient and clinical than his champion teammate as long as he gets his act together.
For now I believe Lando will be that kind of a one off champion, like Hill, Villeneuve, Raikkonen or Button. The stars aligned for him and he delivered, albeit he merely did it.
He never projected the strength of the other champions on the current grid. Fernando, Lewis and Max have been real beasts. As for Oscar, I believe he has learned a lot this year.
Likewise Raikkonen and Hamilton before him, he will find out that McLaren isn’t the best place. If he continues to be strong, somebody else will hire him and he can shine again.
Bobby Laverack: My conclusion is that we had a great championship year, with a well earned first championship for Norris, a brilliant fightback by Verstappen, and at times great display from Piastri
All in, it’s been a good year to see out these regs before the new one starts – with close racing up and down the grid
Alan: If we’re being honest neither Oscar nor Lando managed to consistently get the most out of having the best car on the grid.
Don’t get me wrong they both put in some great performances during the season but they also had a number of off weekends as well, Lando early on in the season and Oscar towards the end.
Both championships are well deserved on account of the team producing such a versatile car capable of performing across a wide range of tracks but i dare say had Max, Charles or George been in that car the drivers championship would have been sealed long before Abu Dhabi.
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