Lando Norris clinched his maiden Formula One world championship on Sunday (Dec 7) in Abu Dhabi, bringing Max Verstappen’s four-year title streak to an end. Norris crossed the line third in the season finale, behind race winner Max Verstappen and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, but secured the championship by a margin of two points. The result makes him Britain’s first world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2020 and delivers a record 13th drivers’ title for McLaren.
An emotional Norris was heard in tears over team radio, saying: “Thanks so much. I love you mum, I love you dad.” McLaren CEO Zak Brown summed up the tension and relief, saying: “That was exciting, a little too exciting, awesome.”
McLaren had signed Norris to its young driver programme two years before promoting him to Formula One, fast-tracking his rise after he finished runner-up to George Russell in the 2018 Formula Two championship. In his debut F1 season alongside Carlos Sainz, Norris impressed with strong pace, narrowly missing a top-10 finish in the standings while edging his more experienced teammate in qualifying over the year.
Norris claimed his first F1 podium in 2020, then came agonisingly close to a maiden victory at the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, where he dominated another senior teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, before losing out late in the race. His breakthrough win finally arrived in Miami last year, the first of four victories that season, as he emerged as Verstappen’s main rival and powered McLaren to their first constructors’ championship since 1998.
Now 26, Norris follows in a long line of McLaren world champions, arriving more than 50 years after Emerson Fittipaldi secured the team’s first drivers’ crown in 1974. The British outfit’s roll of honour includes James Hunt (1976), Niki Lauda (1984), Alain Prost (1985, 1986, 1989), Ayrton Senna (1988, 1990, 1991), Mika Hakkinen (1998, 1999) and Lewis Hamilton (2008).
Under team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown, McLaren wrapped up back-to-back constructors’ titles in Singapore last month, underlining their resurgence at the front of the grid. Sunday’s Abu Dhabi finale was also notable as the first time since the four-way title showdown at Yas Marina in 2010 that the championship went down to a last-race battle involving more than two drivers.