Lando Norris entered the 2025 F1 season regarded as one of the most talented drivers at the moment, loved by fans, but things didn’t seem to work at McLaren. Things turned around for the team when everything clicked, they were consistent, they were fast, and they were dominant. From start to finish, a season-long battle with stars like 4 time world champion Max Verstappen, internal team drama with the two drivers, Norris and Piastri, came down to the final race in Abu Dhabi, where the champion was finally crowned.
The very first race in Melbourne, Australia, was a dramatic start, with rain and tricky conditions, and teams struggled to find the right setups and pace. Lando dominated the race weekend, taking pole position and just narrowly beating out his rival of the season, Max Verstappen of Red Bull, by just 0.865 of a second. This race immediately set the tone for the rest of the season, with Norris saying that “People need to calm down” after his performance, per Motorsport.com, Despite his seemingly effortless victory, Norris knew this was only the start of a tense season.
Unexpectedly, young star and teammate of Norris, Oscar Piastri, won 4 of the next 5 races, with Norris falling short all of those races. The Chinese Grand Prix nonetheless showed complete dominance of McLaren, holding a tight lead of the Constructors’ Championship. The very next race, a new race winner emerged with the experienced Max Verstappen, making it clear that despite the slower car, he would always compete, even saying the race was “Long, dull, not much happening,” showing a bit of sarcasm. The next few races followed similar patterns, with Piastri showing dominance and Lando following a bit behind.
But another winner surfaced in Mercedes’ George Russell, winning the Canadian Grand Prix. Russell would go on to win one more race in the Singaporean Grand Prix, but not show much else the rest of the season, being just behind the championship leaders.
Norris seemed to get back on his feet at the Austrian Grand Prix, getting pole position, along with winning the race, and winning the British Grand Prix, of cours,e with Piastri not far behind.
Piastri was still narrowly ahead in the drivers’ championship with wins in Belgium and the Netherlands. But things started to catch fire in the Italian Grand Prix. Piastri comfortably held the lead ahead of his teammate, but he was given a team order to give up his position to Lando after a slow pit stop. Despite losing the points, Piastri claimed he “had to see the bigger picture,” in terms of the team and maintaining championship leads, per Racer.com.
Fans called this order “unfair” and “unsportsmanlike,” with an anonymous fan saying, “I just want good racing, let them race, I get it; it’s for the team, but it’s just unfair.” Fans of the sport were questioning the authority of the McLaren team and started to think there was a bit of favoritism on the team regarding the drivers.
In the final parts of the season, the dark horse Verstappen skyrocketed in points, winning race after race, with Norris just trailing, allowing him to take the championship lead with a victory in Mexico.
Verstappen was catching up to the McLaren drivers in the standings when tension tightened even more with a double DNF for McLaren in Las Vegas. This allowed Verstappen to cut the lead to only 24 points behind Norris, also being tied with Piastri. “Nothing I can do will change that now, instead full focus switches to Qatar, where we’ll aim to go out and deliver the best possible performance in every session,” Norris said, per BBC, just looking forward to the next race in Qatar, where he can confirm his first ever driver championship, or he could lose it all to the potential 5 time world champion.
Verstappen did what was expected and won Qatar, overtaking Piastri in the championship, and now was only 12 points behind Norris, calling for a true season finale in Abu Dhabi.
As time approached for the season finale in Abu Dhabi, there were 3 possible title scenarios left. For Verstappen to clinch his 5th driver’s title, he either had to outscore Norris by 13 points or win and hope for an awful result from the other two drivers. Piastri had to win and hope Norris would finish below 6th place, and could win with 2nd place, with Norris placing 10th or lower and Verstappen placing 4th or lower. Norris had several possibilities for the championship. Automatic title win if he places 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. If Norris were to place 4th or 5th, he had to pray that Verstappen did not place 2nd or higher, per USA Today.
The stars seemed to align for Norris, starting the race in between Verstappen and Piastri, already in a great position to win the championship. Norris let the nerves get to him, fumbling 2nd place to his teammate immediately in the first lap, with Piastri keeping that position behind Verstappen until lap 24, taking the lead of the race. This didn’t last very long, as the Red Bull driver swiftly took back first place at lap 41, per StatsF1. Norris held on to 3rd this whole time, and as the racers approached the checkered flag, a new world champion had been crowned.
“It feels amazing. Now I know what Max feels like a little bit, and I want to congratulate Max and Oscar, my two biggest competitors all season. It’s been a pleasure to race against both of them, and I’ve learnt a lot from both of them as well.” Norris said, per formula1.com, being well aware of his competition, but just glad that he has finally done it, Norris could call himself the best racer in the world.
