Newly crowned Formula 1 champion Lando Norris won the title “the way I wanted to win it”, and felt he’d drawn the most satisfaction from making those closest to him happy.
In a tense Abu Dhabi encounter, Norris completed his mission of finishing in the top three to secure the 2025 title, beating a resurgent Max Verstappen by two points and team-mate Oscar Piastri by 13.
Through his career Norris has courted criticism for lacking aggression on-track, especially in battles versus Verstappen, although he has persistently refuted the idea that he needs to win championships by losing that approach.
In his solo press conference, fresh from his victory lap around the paddock, Norris did admit that there were times that he perhaps could have pursued a more aggressive approach in combat – but nonetheless felt satisfied that he’d been true to himself in winning this year’s championship.
“That’s one of the things that makes me most proud,” Norris 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.
“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.
“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.
Lando Norris, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images via Getty Images
“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.
“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.”
Norris paid tribute to the investment in him from McLaren, whom he joined as a development driver at the start of 2017, along with his parents.
He suggested that “this is not my world championship, this is ours” and felt it was a good way of repaying the faith and effort expended by those closest to him.
“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,” he said.
“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.
“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, I get to make them feel like their time has been hopefully a little bit worth it. That’s what makes me so happy.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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