How Lando Norris achieved his lifetime’s ambition of F1 world title by ‘winning it my way’
He was 34 points behind Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August, with only nine races remaining. That’s when the run of form that took him to the championship began.
But while the outside perception is that this freed Norris up and allowed him to do the job, he says it’s the exact opposite.
“No, he didn’t let me relax,” he said. “The 34 points against a guy who had the same car, did an incredible job and I know is incredibly great, gave me confidence and made me think I had nothing to lose anymore.”
“I needed to step up what I was doing away from the track, the people I was working with. I needed to bring people into this group, I needed to work harder, I was in a simulator, I needed to change my approaches, I needed to change the way I rode, I needed to dig deeper to unlock more of my ideas.”
“I’m trying to understand more things faster, in a more advanced way than ever before.”
Team principal Andrea Stella said: “The level of Formula 1 drivers today is so high that the only way to stay in this quest to compete at this level is to keep improving constantly.”
“Looking at Lando, even if he didn’t go to the last race, there was definitely a lot missed from last year’s mission. I think Lando has almost elevated his status, like, ‘I can compete with Max.’
“There was another important turning point this season, the way Lando, and we will talk about him specifically, responded to the challenges we had at the beginning of the season. There was the beginning of a structured, holistic process, which included personal development, professionalism, drive, racing ability.”
“I’m particularly pleased that Lando was able to benefit from this, because it’s not something I’ve seen many times before in terms of the amount of work, the people involved, and the pace of development.”
For Stella’s boss, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, it was both a personal and professional achievement. Brown began supporting Norris at management level when he was 14 (he loved profiling), backing him through the junior ranks and bringing him to McLaren.
“I remember when he was this great. The management around him has done a great job of developing him into the mature world champion he is now. And that’s a huge accomplishment. It’s very rewarding.”
