Key Lando Norris trait highlighted in world championship win

Lando Norris proved many of his critics wrong in 2025 as he chased down Oscar Piastri and fended off Max Verstappen to claim the world championship.

A strong second half of the season saw the Brit overhaul his McLaren teammate while doing just enough to take the championship by two points over Verstappen.

Lando Norris proved his critics wrong by winning the 2025 title

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While Norris may have won the world championship in 2025, he stopped short of labelling himself the best driver in Formula 1.

“I hate ever having to try and compare myself to other people,” he admitted.

“All I try and do every weekend is the best of what I can. But then you decide he’s better than him, or he’s got a worse car and he’s doing better – write what you like, decide what you like.”

While Norris’s efforts were bolstered by driving the class-leading McLaren MCL39, it was an advantage that was eroded as the year wore on.

From Azerbaijan, Verstappen and Red Bull were serious contenders, and Piastri in the other McLaren headed the title fight for much of the year.

The difference, in the latter races, was Norris, who was able to more consistently extract the most out of his car.

That allowed him both to reel in Piastri and overhaul the Australian’s points advantage, but also limit the damage inflicted by Verstappen when he was at his most devastating.

“I certainly feel like at moments I’ve driven better than I feel like other people can,” Norris confessed.

“I feel like I drove at a level I don’t think other people can match.

“But have I also made my mistakes? Have I made more mistakes than other people at times? Yes.

“Is there stuff Max could do better at times than me? Yes. Do I believe he’s unbeatable? No. But you also don’t know, do you? It’s hard to know.”

McLaren looked to have both the Constructors’ and Drivers’ championships well under control even as F1 returned from the mid-season break in late-August.

However, at the Italian Grand Prix, Red Bull discovered something – a secret that unlocked greater potential from the RB21 and, from that point on, it was a consistent thorn in McLaren’s side.

While McLaren wrapped up the Constructors’ Championship in Singapore, it was only in Abu Dhabi that Norris finally secured the crown.

It was a close-run thing, with McLaren making its life harder than it perhaps needed by refusing to back one driver over another, allowing them to steal points from one another.

Perhaps the saving grace was that, prior to Monza, Red Bull wasn’t able to consistently unlock its full potential.

It led to a late-season showdown, with Norris doing what he needed to do, and no more.

Lando Norris vs Oscar Piastri: Final head-to-head standings

F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

“They also struggled with the car in the mid part of the season,” Norris pointed out.

“They’ve had an incredible second half of the season. They took advantage of the fact we had two of us fighting for a world championship.

“He really made the most of that and Max drove like he is a four-time world champion.

“I’m very happy that I got to race against him and try to prove myself against him.

“Whether then you want to write whatever you want to write, against him, against me, or whatever it is, feel free…

“My motivation is not here to prove I’m better than someone else, that’s not what makes me happy

“Deep down, I don’t care about that. I don’t care if every article is, “Do you think he’s better than me?” or “Oscar’s better,” or whatever it is. Doesn’t matter. I have no interest in that.

“I’ve just done what I’ve needed to do to win the world championship. That’s it. And I made my people happy.

“That’s all I really care about at the end of the day.”

It’s an approach that marks a change in Norris; a driver once considered too emotional and affected by misfortune to be world champion.

Instead, he emerged as the class of the field, regardless of whether that qualified him as the best in the estimation of others.

“That’s one of the things that makes me most proud,” he said.

“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 or as forceful as other champions might have been in the past – whatever it may be. 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. That certainly makes me happy.”

That confidence and self belief had been missing; the Norris that ended the F1 2025 season, that was crowned world champion in Abu Dhabi, was different to that which won in Australia to start the year.

He was more considered, more certain, more comfortable in himself. He was the best version of Lando Norris he could be; where that leaves him in comparison to the likes of Piastri or Verstappen is inconsequential.

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