Norris shows his mental strength to seal F1 title for McLaren

A season featuring a string of strategy mistakes, the occasional driver error and, if we are being honest, a large helping of not-being-ruthless-enough when it mattered, it was never going to be a straight-froward win for McLaren in the constructors’ championship.

Despite coming into the Abu Dhabi season finale with a 21-point cushion over Ferrari, it never looked particularly comfortable – even though Lando Norris took pole in a McLaren 1-2.

In Abu Dhabi, McLaren CEO Zak Brown sat down with a few journalists in the paddock to explain the team would be focusing its preparations to race in the same manner as it had done all season.

So, perhaps it was no surprise that after Max Verstappen had clattered into Oscar Piastri at the start, sending the McLaren driver spinning from second to last, that it would again be backs-to-the-wall stuff for the Woking squad.

Yes, Norris had remained in the lead, but given how McLaren had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Montreal and Silverstone, it was not a given.

Norris too had spurred an opportunity to win at the Austrian Grand Prix when he tangled with Verstappen for the lead, gift wrapping a victory for George Russell.

The drivers’ championship runner-up was remarkably down-beat at the Red Bull Ring and cut a dejected figure.

He looked broken post-race. Destroyed even.

Norris saw his own title challenge with Verstappen fizzle out at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, so the focus was going to be on how he would respond and end the season.

Momentum is key in F1 but how would he react to missing out on the drivers’ crown?

In the following race, the Qatar Grand Prix, he limped home in 10th raising questions whether he’d lost the fight. But any doubts were erased at the finale when he took a brilliant pole at Yas Marina Circuit Dhabi amid huge pressure.

After the first couple of laps, he was remarkably calm over team radio while comfortably leading, but without Piastri running in the points, the situation remained perilous, especially as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc occupied second and third.

It was all on Norris to deliver; a driver whose mental strength had been called into question over the course of the last few years.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, 1st position, passes his team on the pit wall at the end of the race

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Norris had faced the jibes on social media, dubbed ‘Lando No Wins’ by the trolls who seized upon his failure to score a victory in F1.

He ended that run in Miami this year, ironically with Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur taking part in the celebrations. Amid those celebrations there was a feeling that now he’d ended the winless spell, the floodgates would open and there would be more victories – only they didn’t.

Just further wins at the Dutch and Singapore Grands Prix followed, both being dominant, ahead of his first-place in Abu Dhabi.

Norris has been incredibly hard on himself at each missed opportunity. McLaren’s strategic blunders were compounded by Norris’s self-scrutiny, which was often painful to watch.

Yet each time there was a set-back, McLaren promised to learn from the mistake.

So what has followed was a steep learning curve as it figured out what it takes to be winners, Norris included.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 2nd position, Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 1st position, and Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, 3rd position, on the podium

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar

Norris, and now McLaren, now know what it takes, and that bodes well for them next season.

As Norris said, he is already thinking about 2025 after crossing the line, he radioed his team telling them “next year, it’s mine too!”

When asked by the 2016 F1 champion about the remark and winning the next drivers’ championship, Norris was adamant.

“This is my goal, our goal as a team,” he said. “We want to win the constructors and drivers’ next year.

“I made my mistakes this year but I learned a lot and learned a lot from Max and my competitors around me. As much as I’m happy now, I’m excited to get next year going.”

Norris has been on an incredible learning curve this season and it has culminated in the team’s first constructors’ title since 1998.

He may have missed out on the drivers’ crown, but he delivered most when he needed to, with a faultless performance given the enormity of what was at stake.