Lando Norris proved many of his critics wrong in 2025 as he chased down Oscar Piastri and fended off Max Verstappen to claim the world championship.<\/p>\n
A strong second half of the season saw the Brit overhaul his McLaren teammate while doing just enough to take the championship by two points over Verstappen.<\/p>\n
Lando Norris proved his critics wrong by winning the 2025 title<\/p>\n
Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust.<\/p>\n While Norris may have won the world championship in 2025, he stopped short of labelling himself the best driver in Formula 1.<\/p>\n \u201cI hate ever having to try and compare myself to other people,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I try and do every weekend is the best of what I can. But then you decide he\u2019s better than him, or he\u2019s got a worse car and he\u2019s doing better \u2013 write what you like, decide what you like.\u201d<\/p>\n While Norris\u2019s efforts were bolstered by driving the class-leading McLaren MCL39, it was an advantage that was eroded as the year wore on.<\/p>\n From Azerbaijan, Verstappen and Red Bull were serious contenders, and Piastri in the other McLaren headed the title fight for much of the year.<\/p>\n The difference, in the latter races, was Norris, who was able to more consistently extract the most out of his car.<\/p>\n That allowed him both to reel in Piastri and overhaul the Australian\u2019s points advantage, but also limit the damage inflicted by Verstappen when he was at his most devastating.<\/p>\n \u201cI certainly feel like at moments I\u2019ve driven better than I feel like other people can,\u201d Norris confessed.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I drove at a level I don\u2019t think other people can match.<\/p>\n \u201cBut have I also made my mistakes? Have I made more mistakes than other people at times? Yes.<\/p>\n \u201cIs there stuff Max could do better at times than me? Yes. Do I believe he\u2019s unbeatable? No. But you also don\u2019t know, do you? It\u2019s hard to know.\u201d<\/p>\n McLaren looked to have both the Constructors\u2019 and Drivers\u2019 championships well under control even as F1 returned from the mid-season break in late-August.<\/p>\n However, at the Italian Grand Prix, Red Bull discovered something \u2013 a secret that unlocked greater potential from the RB21 and, from that point on, it was a consistent thorn in McLaren\u2019s side.<\/p>\n While McLaren wrapped up the Constructors\u2019 Championship in Singapore, it was only in Abu Dhabi that Norris finally secured the crown.<\/p>\n It was a close-run thing, with McLaren making its life harder than it perhaps needed by refusing to back one driver over another, allowing them to steal points from one another.<\/p>\n Perhaps the saving grace was that, prior to Monza, Red Bull wasn\u2019t able to consistently unlock its full potential.<\/p>\n It led to a late-season showdown, with Norris doing what he needed to do, and no more.<\/p>\n Lando Norris vs Oscar Piastri: Final head-to-head standings<\/p>\n F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThey also struggled with the car in the mid part of the season,\u201d Norris pointed out.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve had an incredible second half of the season. They took advantage of the fact we had two of us fighting for a world championship.<\/p>\n \u201cHe really made the most of that and Max drove like he is a four-time world champion.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very happy that I got to race against him and try to prove myself against him.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether then you want to write whatever you want to write, against him, against me, or whatever it is, feel free\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cMy motivation is not here to prove I\u2019m better than someone else, that\u2019s not what makes me happy<\/p>\n \u201cDeep down, I don\u2019t care about that. I don\u2019t care if every article is, \u201cDo you think he\u2019s better than me?\u201d or \u201cOscar\u2019s better,\u201d or whatever it is. Doesn\u2019t matter. I have no interest in that.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve just done what I\u2019ve needed to do to win the world championship. That\u2019s it. And I made my people happy.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s all I really care about at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s an approach that marks a change in Norris; a driver once considered too emotional and affected by misfortune to be world champion.<\/p>\n Instead, he emerged as the class of the field, regardless of whether that qualified him as the best in the estimation of others.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of the things that makes me most proud,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I have just managed to win it the way I wanted to win it, which was not by being someone I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n \u201cNot trying to be as aggressive as Max or as forceful as other champions might have been in the past \u2013 whatever it may be. I\u2019m happy. I just won it my way.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m happy I could go out and be myself and win it Lando\u2019s way, as Andrea [Stella] would tell me. That certainly makes me happy.\u201d<\/p>\n That confidence and self belief had been missing; the Norris that ended the F1 2025 season, that was crowned world champion in Abu Dhabi, was different to that which won in Australia to start the year.<\/p>\n He was more considered, more certain, more comfortable in himself. He was the best version of Lando Norris he could be; where that leaves him in comparison to the likes of Piastri or Verstappen is inconsequential.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n