Lando Norris is the 2025 F1 world champion and McLaren is back on top after a rollercoaster season

Lando Norris held his nerve to withstand the pressure from both Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri and become the 2025 Formula 1 world champion, proving that the McLaren strategy was right all along.

The 2025 Formula 1 season has been decorated in papaya orange from the moment the wheels began to turn.

But just as it looked like the Red Bull wings were about to swoop in and clinch another Driver’s Championship title, one of McLaren’s deadly duo came in clutch.

The reign of Verstappen is now over, as Lando Norris becomes the 11th British F1 Champion, joining Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button as the elite 21st-century athletes from the racing powerhouse nation.

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Lando Norris prevails in a nail-biting Formula 1 2025 season

The papaya orange brand has been head and shoulders above the rest of the pack all the way through the Formula 1 2025 season, having secured the Constructor’s Championship back in October.

But when it came down to the individual Driver’s Championship, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen overcame a 104-point deficit to put himself in contention to win in the very last race of the season.

And that’s thanks to a massive blunder from McLaren in Las Vegas.

As the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix began, Lando Norris led the standings and needed to secure a third-place finish to become champion.

It was Max Verstappen who won the race, with Oscar Piastri – who could have also won the championship with some favorable scenarios – in second.

Despite fierce competition from Charles Leclerc for the final podium spot, today’s racing news saw Lando Norris take third, and be crowned the 2025 Formula 1 champion.

The clutch win has now put an end to the Verstappen reign, who had been the champion for over 1,300 days, winning the last four titles.

Norris now joins Hamilton, Button, Damon Hill, Nigel Mansell, James Hunt, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, and Mark Hawthorn as the 11th British driver to win the championship, maintaining the country’s monopoly over the elite motorsport.

McLaren triumphs with its ‘team-focused’ attitude

Skeptics – or Verstappen believers – put a lot of criticism on the McLaren team’s strategy this year.

With two extremely competitive racers, the organization chose not to have a clear ‘favorite’ as the number one driver.

While this strategy was a recipe for success in the Constructor’s Championship, it left Norris and Piastri divided at many points of the season.

However, it ultimately paid dividends as Verstappen fell just short of his monumental comeback, while Piastri was able to comfortably cruise home in third overall.

The 2025 season ends an entire era in Formula 1, with the paddock extending in 2026 with a string of new rules that will see DRS become extinct and wheel-to-wheel racing become much more important.

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