Loading player
The British McLaren driver Lando Norris, 26 years old, finished third at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in the United Arab Emirates, and thus won the Formula 1 World Championship. It was the last Grand Prix of the season, where three were competing for the World Championship, as had not happened for 15 years: Norris, in fact, his teammate Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen of Red Bull. Both Piastri and Verstappen finished ahead of Norris (Verstappen first and Piastri second), but neither was enough to win the World Championship.
In fact, before this Grand Prix, Norris was leading the drivers’ standings with 12 points ahead of Verstappen and 16 over Piastri. For this reason, a third place (which in Formula 1 is worth 15 points) was enough for him to secure the World Championship regardless of the positions of his opponents. On his side, then, Norris also had the fastest car in the World Championship. This year, in fact, McLaren had won the Constructors’ World Championship for the second time in a row (and well in advance), the ranking with the scores obtained in the race by drivers who race with cars from the same car manufacturer.
Lando Norris celebrates in his McLaren after finishing third at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and winning the Formula 1 World Championship, December 7, 2025 (Peter Fox/Getty Images)
Yet Norris had not always been the favorite this year. He never did badly in general terms and always remained in the running for the World Championship, but due to some individual mistakes (and also a bit of bad luck) he had been in second place in the drivers’ standings for months, behind Piastri. He had only returned to the lead at the end of October, but some big strategic errors by McLaren – in addition to the team’s controversial choice to let its two drivers compete freely, who thus took away many points from each other during the season – allowed Verstappen to make up a lot of ground on both and stay in the race until the end. Verstappen, after all, is a much more experienced driver than Norris and Piastri, having won the last four World Championships before this one.
The Abu Dhabi race itself was not at all easy for Norris. After starting in second position, he was immediately overtaken by Piastri and found himself forced to defend a very important third place: if he had lost it and Verstappen had won the Grand Prix (as he did, by prediction), he would have lost the World Championship.
After the first pit stop he rejoined the track in a very far back position and, above all, in the so-called “traffic”, that is, surrounded by several opposing cars that risked slowing him down. Nonetheless, thanks to several skilful overtakings he managed to get back to third place, and then keep it. His ability to handle the pressure in this match has in a certain sense refuted the criticisms of those who have called him “Blando” Norris several times this year, due to his alleged insecurity in difficult situations.
A McLaren driver hadn’t won a World Championship since 2008. Then the winner was Lewis Hamilton, one of the strongest drivers in the history of Formula 1. This year, Hamilton raced for Ferrari, but had a very disappointing season.
