As Lando Norris breaks into view on the edge of our camera set-up on the rooftop of one of Abu Dhabi’s plush paddock buildings, the smile that has been etched on his face since the moment he stepped out of the car to finish third in the season finale, and clinch enough points to win his first world title, is still beaming bright.<\/p>\n
He bounces over to his chair, says hey, and wriggles into the seat to get comfortable. The McLaren driver<\/a> grips the microphone with both hands, still smiling and looks over to me itching to start the interview. It’s not often that happens, but this is no ordinary time.<\/p>\n Norris is buzzing. Even if he’s soaked head to toe in a combination of sweat and champagne, there’s nothing that is going to harsh his buzz. This is his moment. The one he’s worked all his life for.<\/p>\n When I call him World Champion again, he giggles and that smile gets even bigger as he grips the microphone tighter. It may have been around two hours since the race had finished \u2013 and he may have done a round of the TV pen talking to all the broadcasters and then a long Champion’s Press Conference with the media before celebrating with his team in the garage \u2013 but it’s clear it hasn’t sunk in yet. Not by a long shot.<\/p>\n “It just takes a little time to acknowledge what we’ve all achieved,” he says. “I have achieved my dream, that little boy’s dream.<\/p>\n “Yeah, me as a six-year-old, seeing it on TV, thinking, I want to do that, and now I’m here and achieving it. This is crazy. So I’ll always have to start by saying a big thanks to my parents, my mum, my dad, my brother, my sisters, the people who have been there since day one. But boy, yeah, a hell of a journey.<\/p>\n “Many years with McLaren, ups, downs. But this year I managed to say thank you for all of it in one big go, with the constructors’ [crown] and with the drivers’ \u2018I did it, I did it, I did it!\u2019 \u2013 Lando Norris on achieving his title dream and digging deep to overcome Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. I don’t know when it’s really going to sink in.<\/p>\n “If you want the truth, I just went to the toilet. It’s the first time I’ve just been a little bit alone, nice and peaceful and quiet. And I was like, ‘oh, I did it, I did it, I did it!’<\/p>\n “Yeah, so it is truly amazing to finally get to feel what it’s like, to feel on top of the world for a few moments, and also just to get to give back to everyone that’s put so much into me. It started with my parents, but also my engineers, my mechanics, everyone back in the factory. They worked so, so hard to achieve this kind of thing.<\/p>\n “Today, instead of words of saying thank you, as much as I’ll still say thank you in words, the action of a championship means so much more than that. And I thank them to the world.”<\/p>\n ‘I’m such a lucky person. I know I am’<\/p>\n Norris is no stranger to long answers in interviews, whether he’s had a good day or not. It’s always been his way to front up to things, to explain things and to be honest.<\/p>\n On winning the championship, those answers only got longer, because he was not only eager to highlight that it was a team effort \u2013 which includes all those who have helped him along the way \u2013 but because the craziness of what he had just achieved meant there was so much swirling around in his head, it was difficult to articulate anything succinctly. It was sensory overload.<\/p>\n The first people he embraced were his mum and dad, who stood proudly in parc ferme waiting to give their son a squeeze. “It’s quite simple,” he says. “I wouldn’t be here without them. I wouldn’t have had the chance to live my dream, to live an incredible life that I have.<\/p>\n “I’m such a lucky person. I know I am. And I think that’s also why I understand that. I understand what a lucky person I am to have been given that opportunity to get to enjoy my life at such a young age, karting, travelling the world, doing what I do.<\/p>\n “I get to now say thank you in the biggest way possible. And I also just get to give back, and it’s so hard to do that when you’re in my position because you always feel like you’re taking, and everyone’s behind you, and you’re the star.<\/p>\n “But I really don’t like that aspect of it. I only like the fact that I get to come in and see everyone so happy. That’s the craziest feeling in the world, is knowing you can have such a big impact on everyone. Yeah, I mean, to see my mum crying. And my dad. That just shows how much it means to them.”<\/p>\n ‘I had to do a better job than I’ve ever done before’<\/p>\n Norris started the season off in the best possible way by winning in Australia but thereafter, it was his team mate Oscar Piastri<\/a> who assumed control of the title fight as Norris struggled to get comfortable with the car. While Norris found solutions \u2013 which helped him win Monaco and his home race at Silverstone for the first time \u2013 Piastri had momentum and gradually pulled away as the championship headed towards the summer break.<\/p>\n When Norris pulled off track at Zandvoort<\/a> while running second, as Piastri clinched victory, he was left sat on the dunes, head in hands, wondering how he was going to overcome a 34-point deficit.<\/p>\n “I certainly thought my life was extremely difficult, and it was from that point onward,” he says of that moment in Zandvoort. “I had to do a better job than I’ve ever done before. I had to start winning a lot of races. I had to consistently beat my team mate. I had to consistently beat everyone.<\/p>\n “At that point, it felt like a lot. At that point, I could barely beat him on one weekend.<\/p>\n “Whether that was on the simulator, here on the track, with my engineers, spending time with them, understanding the difficulties, just going into more depth than ever before, trying to be more efficient, bringing in more people from around, wherever it is, to help me understand myself, help me understand how I can get more out of myself, how I can get more out of the people around me, how we can all work together better as a team.<\/p>\n “All of these little things, a lot of little things that no one else gets to see, no one even knows about, apart from me and my team. My team around me that pushes so much to achieve something like today.<\/p>\n “It’s not something I even need other people to know about or care about, but it’s something that I know, like so much effort, so much time, so much work, from my group went into, how can we make Lando a better person, a better driver, how can we get him to win the championship from being 34 points behind?<\/p>\n “All of that work paid off and that’s what made me so happy at that time, was like, damn, I’m actually doing it, I’m doing what I needed to do. Because one thing is just thinking it or believing it, the next thing is actually going out and doing it. That was my job and I wouldn’t have been able to do that without the people around me.”<\/p>\n Norris found a way to chip away at Piastri’s lead \u2013 and then really started to stamp authority on the championship, as his team mate struggled with the car, through commanding victories in Mexico and Brazil.<\/p>\n But there would be a further twist as a double disqualification for McLaren in Las Vegas and a strategy blunder in Qatar allowed Norris’ friend and four-time world champion Max Verstappen<\/a> back into the hunt. He trailed by just 12 points heading into the final round in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n