Lando Norris: How F1 got a new kind of champion with open McLaren driver who beat Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen

After holding his nerve to seal a maiden Formula 1 title on Sunday, it was hours after the chequered flag when Lando Norris showed that the sport has got a new kind of champion.

Having used his driving skills to pip Max Verstappen to the championship, Norris delivered a press conference full of words that will mean just as much to some of his fans as the overtakes that sealed the title.

In the era of Netflix’s Drive To Survive and the direct fan engagement enabled by social media, the popularity of F1 drivers appears to be dictated as much by what they do outside the cockpit as they do in it.

Norris was a fine example of this, with the Brit developing a huge, loyal fanbase long before he claimed his maiden F1 race victory in May 2024.

While there’s no doubt that the cheeky-chappy persona Norris came into the sport with in 2019 has played a part, many of his fans have been drawn to his honesty.

When the 2020 F1 season was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, Norris engaged directly with his fans – generally a youthful demographic – on streaming platforms. He opened up about the mental health struggles he’d experienced at the age of 19 during his first year on the grid.

Norris would go on to become an important advocate for mental health, working with charity Mind in 2021 to raise awareness and encourage others to seek support if needed.

It could be argued that Norris’ streaming background is often evident during an F1 weekend, when he conducts his media responsibilities.

Unlike most of the drivers on the grid, Norris often drifts off into a stream of consciousness, unloading his thoughts to the world’s media, sometimes creating unwanted headlines.

It was therefore fitting that following his triumph on Sunday, Norris was at his most candid and descriptive when reflecting on his path to glory and looking ahead to the future.

Asked about his refusal to conform to traditional expectations of elite sportsmen, Norris said: “That’s one of the things that makes me most proud. 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.

“I just won it my way. I’m happy I could go out and be myself and win it Lando’s way, as [McLaren team principal] Andrea [Stella] would tell me. That certainly makes me happy.

“Could I have gone out and been more of that person you probably want me to be at times? I could have done. 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.”

How Lando’s way changed in 2025

While Norris has been stubborn in some aspects of his approach to racing, it was a willingness to implement mid-season change that enabled this victory.

After McLaren’s strong finish to 2024, which saw Norris impressively seal the Constructors’ Championship for them by winning in Abu Dhabi, the Brit went into this year as the clear favourite.

Having received more attention than ever in the weeks building up to the start of the season, Norris delivered by taking pole position and winning the opening race in Australia.

However, he was unable to maintain that form, while his team-mate Oscar Piastri displayed huge improvement, winning four of the next five races to take the championship lead and supplant Norris as many onlookers’ title favourite.

Norris revealed on Sunday that it was around this stage of the season where he realised change was necessary.

“It started after I had that kind of bad run in race two, three, four, five, six, that kind of area,” he said.

“It was like, “alright, 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?’

“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 to understand things on a deeper level, mentally.’

“That opened up understanding myself more, understanding things more at a championship level. That’s the level I’ve got to be at. They are world champions. And yes, certainly the struggles turned into strength.”

Those changes would eventually pay off, with Norris finding his best form in the closing stages of the season, most notably with back-to-back dominant victories in Mexico City and Sao Paulo.

He might have had the title wrapped up earlier were it not for a technical failure at the Dutch Grand Prix and a double disqualification for McLaren in Las Vegas, but Norris went into the final round knowing a podium would be enough to seal the title.

He delivered under pressure in qualifying to take second on the grid and then pulled off several nerveless overtakes to protect his position during the race, including an awkward one on Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who was given a penalty for pushing Norris off track.

“It got pretty close,” he recalled. “And it’s crazy thinking about it, because you’re like, ‘damn, if that was five centimetres closer – it’s over.’

Norris’ motivation – making others happy

While Piastri appeared to be Norris’ main rival for most of the year, it was reigning champion Verstappen who emerged in the closing stages of the season as the biggest threat.

Norris gained experience duelling the Dutchman during the second half of last season, with a competitive rivalry developing between a pair who had shared a good friendship.

Barbs were traded in the build-up to the decider, with Verstappen insisting he would have eased to the title if he had been driving a McLaren, and Norris responding by accusing his rival of talking “nonsense”.

Despite that, Norris insisted his satisfaction isn’t derived from having beaten Verstappen, but rather making those who support him – friends, family and colleagues – proud.

“My motivation is not here to prove I’m better than someone else,” Norris said. “That’s not what makes me happy. I’m not going to wake up tomorrow and go, ‘I’m so happy because I beat Max.’ I honestly, deep down, don’t care about that.

“I’m proud because I feel like I made a lot of other people happy. I made my engineers Will [Joseph[, [Andrew] Jarv [Jarvis] as well – 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. But the fact that they put so much effort into making me perform and helping us all perform. The fact I get to make them feel like their time has been, hopefully, a little bit worth it – that’s what makes me so happy.”

The future for Norris

As is the nature of top-level sport, just hours after Norris had taken the chequered flag, attention had already turned to the future, and whether more championships will follow.

While others might have taken the opportunity to assert themselves, particularly over the team-mate who they had beaten to the title, Norris did the opposite with Piastri, describing the Australian as “a guy who at some point in the future will probably beat me and be a world champion.”

With a huge change of regulations coming for next season, Norris is also well aware that McLaren’s spell at the front of the grid isn’t guaranteed to last.

“This might be my only time – I really hope it’s not,” he said. “And I am confident it’s not going be my only time of sitting here alone.

“But I want to enjoy this moment because not many people ever will get to experience what I’ve managed to experience today.”

With the pressure of delivering a championship for the people he cares about removed, Norris should in theory become an even more dangerous competitor for his rivals.

However, Britain’s 11th F1 champion is not overly worried about that.

Looking to the future, he said: “I hope it doesn’t change anything I do, the way I think, the way I do things.”

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