{"id":334962,"date":"2025-12-08T13:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T13:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334962\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T13:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T13:26:08","slug":"lando-norris-claims-he-was-often-unmatchable-on-way-to-f1-title-glory-lando-norris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334962\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris claims he was often unmatchable on way to F1 title glory | Lando Norris"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris<\/a> said he performed at a level his rivals could not match this season after he was crowned Formula One world champion for the first time.<\/p>\n

Norris celebrated at a glitzy afterparty at the W Hotel which sits on top of the Yas Marina Circuit, where only hours earlier he realised his childhood dream, becoming just the 11th driver from Britain to win an F1 title.<\/p>\n

Videos have emerged of the 26-year-old toasting his success by singing Queen\u2019s We are the Champions and Neil Diamond\u2019s Sweet Caroline.<\/p>\n

Norris was 34 points off the championship pace at one point in the season, but fought back to end Max Verstappen\u2019s run of four consecutive world titles. Verstappen\u2019s victory at the season finale was his eighth of the year \u2013 one more than Norris \u2013 and his sixth in the last nine races, and he finished just two points behind his McLaren<\/a> rival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate ever having to try and compare myself to other people,\u201d said Norris. \u201cBut I certainly feel like at moments I\u2019ve driven better than I feel like other people can. And I feel like I drove at a level I don\u2019t think other people can match. Did I also make mistakes? Yes. Is there stuff Max could do better at times than me? Yes. But do I believe he\u2019s unbeatable? No.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had an incredible second half of the season. He took advantage of the fact that as a team we had both Oscar [Piastri] and I fighting for a world championship. He really made the most of that and he drove like he is, a four-time world champion. I\u2019m very happy that I got to prove myself against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether I am better than him or not, it doesn\u2019t matter. I have no interest in that. I\u2019ve just done what I\u2019ve needed to do to win the world championship. I made my people happy, and that\u2019s all I really care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris, who is due to return to his title-winning McLaren cockpit for a Pirelli tyre test in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, also apologised to Lewis Hamilton, having courted criticism last year for suggesting Hamilton\u2019s record-equalling seven titles were due in part to his all-conquering Mercedes.<\/p>\n

In an awkward exchange in the cool-down room after last season\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix, Norris said to Hamilton: \u201cYou had a fast car seven years ago \u2026 you made the most of it and now it is us.\u201d Hamilton replied: \u201cI wasn\u2019t complaining. I was just complimenting your car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris added in Abu Dhabi: \u201cI know I say some stupid things that I regret and I wish I could take back and never came out of my mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly believe I give more respect than anyone else. I give more respect to Oscar. I give more respect to Max. I try and give as much respect as I can to Lewis. He\u2019s a seven-time world champion. He\u2019s the best driver there has ever been in Formula One<\/a>. I\u2019m not even close to that, and I might never be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris said he performed at a level his rivals could not match this season after he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-334962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}