In winning F1 title, Norris proves himself (and his doubters) wrong

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — With three corners remaining of Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Lando Norris started shaking involuntarily inside the cockpit of his McLaren. He was within a half mile of realizing his childhood dream, but he was also entering uncharted territory.

For the past two laps of the Yas Marina Circuit, his thoughts had darted uncontrollably from the first time he saw Formula 1 on TV to his first go-kart to the unwavering support of his parents throughout his career. A single-minded journey that started 18 years ago in a go-kart was about to reach its destination in the cockpit of a McLaren F1 car: Norris was about to become an F1 world champion.

«I felt calm until three corners to go,» Norris said on Sunday night once the dust had settled. «Then I started to shake a little bit. I got to think of all those incredible memories very quickly, and then I got to see the team when I went over the line, and this is a moment that I’ll never forget.»

The release of emotion as he crossed the line was audible from his team radio. «I’m not crying,» he said entirely unconvincingly shortly after expressing his love for his parents in a voice flooded with joy, fulfillment and pride.

Tears continued to well in his eyes as he walked out onto the podium, where he picked up a third-place trophy that meant so much more than the result engraved upon it. His mother, Cisca, and father, Adam, looked proudly up at their son as he held the trophy aloft — sharing a moment that only the three of them can ever truly know the meaning of.

Max Verstappen and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

As he fidgeted his way through news conferences and looking ashen faced on the grid, though, he appeared to want to be anywhere other than Abu Dhabi for the majority of the weekend. Even in the moments leading up to the pre-race national anthem, there was a worrying omen as a track security guard vomited several meters ahead of Norris’ car. The offending matter was quickly covered by a towel — and was likely not seen by Norris — but there was unquestionably a nervous energy around his grid spot.

When the race finally got underway, things started to fall into place, and a podium finish looked more and more secure as the laps counted down. Running an alternative strategy, Piastri took second place from Norris on the opening lap, but it was a move that actually helped McLaren eliminate Verstappen’s strategy options later in the race. Meanwhile, Norris did well to ward off early advances from Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in fourth and maintain track position as the race calmed down.

After his first pit stop, Norris had to negotiate a number of cars running longer into the race on older tires, including Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Radio communications from the Red Bull pit wall made clear what was expected of Tsunoda in his final race for the team, and he obliged in trying to aid Verstappen’s title chances by weaving in front of Norris to hinder his progress.

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«It didn’t allow me to relax,» he said. «When I see 34 points against a guy who’s in the same car, who’s doing an incredible job, who I know is incredibly quick, that didn’t fill me with confidence. And it wasn’t like, ‘I’ve got nothing to lose now, I can just go.’ I felt like I was trying to do everything I could before, and I continued to try and do everything I could after, but I just had to step up what I was doing away from the track.

«The people I was working with, I added more people to that group. I had to work harder both on the simulator and here at track. I had to change my approaches. I had to dig deep and try and understand more things quicker and in a more advanced way than I ever have before.

«That’s what gave me the advantage I had, not, ‘Oh, the pressure’s off, I can go and do what I’d like to do.’ It was really the opposite. I got to be more myself because of external factors — working with more professionals in different areas to unlock more of my ability — and I think when you saw that, I had that run of great results, which is ultimately what got me the championship in the end.»

In a season in which Verstappen won more races than Norris in a less competitive car and finished two points behind in the final standings, there are undoubtedly some who feel the Red Bull driver would have been a more worthy champion. It’s an opinion that doesn’t surprise Norris and bothers him even less.

«This is all for you guys to decide whether someone’s better than someone else or not,» he said. «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.

«I certainly feel like at moments I’ve driven better than I feel like other people can, and 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 my motivation is not here to prove I’m better than someone else. That’s not what makes me happy. I’m not goping to wake up tomorrow and go, ‘I’m so happy because I beat Max.’ I honestly, deep down, 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.»

It’s easy to point to a number of flashpoints in the season and imagine parallel realities in which events went differently and Norris fell short of either Verstappen or Piastri in the final standings. But the only reality that counts is the one that played out on Sunday evening, and in that version of events, Norris finished as champion.

«If I look back on it, my first half of the season, it was not the most impressive,» he said. «Certainly, there were times I made some mistakes, made some bad judgments. I made my errors, as I’m sure every driver would admit to, but how I managed to turn all of that and have the second half of the season that I had is what makes me very proud — that I’ve been able to prove myself wrong. There were doubts I had in the beginning of the year, and I proved myself wrong, and that’s something that makes me very happy.»

Norris not only proved himself wrong, but also a large number of onlookers. His speed was never in doubt, but there were questions over whether he had the mentality to harness it to full effect. By Sunday evening in Abu Dhabi, those questions had been answered.

«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,» he said. «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.

«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.»