‘I won the championship my way’ – Norris hopes title win doesn’t change him as a driver

Lando Norris has voiced his hope that becoming a World Champion will not change him as driver, with the Briton keen to keep his approach after feeling that he “won the championship my way” in 2025.

Having clinched his debut title by finishing the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in third place – meaning that he kept closest rival Max Verstappen at bay by two points – Norris took a moment to reflect back on his campaign, which saw him retake the championship lead from McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri in the second half of the season following a strong run for the Briton.

When asked if he felt that he would grow as a driver as a result of winning the championship, Norris conceded that he would “find out” – but suggested that he did not want to change much from his current style.

“I hope it doesn’t change anything I do, the way I think, the way I do things,” the 26-year-old explained. “I believe I won the championship this year my way – by being a fair driver, by trying to be an honest driver.

“At times, could I have been more aggressive and got off the brakes and had a few people over? I certainly could have done, and maybe I would need to do more of that in the future. But did I need to do it this year? Is that the way I want to go racing? Is that me? It's not.

“And I'm sure if you compare me, if that’s what you wanna do, to all the champions: have I been as aggressive as them at times? No. Have I been as daring as them at times? No. But did I do just what I needed to do to win the World Championship?

“Did I perform consistently? Did I perform when I needed to under the most pressure? Post-Zandvoort, did I come back in the way I had to? Did I have three, four weekends of great results? I did. And I performed when I needed to perform to win the World Championship this season. And in the end, that’s what I needed to do. That’s all I needed to do.”

Norris acknowledged that there were certain moments during the season that he would approach differently in hindsight – including his collision with Piastri at the Canadian Grand Prix – but the McLaren racer added that he believes he has improved as a driver since the campaign kicked off in Australia back in March.

“Of course, I’ll learn from everything,” he admitted. “Like I said, moments I wish I could go back on and I feel bad for, like Montreal and things like that, I embarrassed myself. But I wish I could go back and change some things.

“Plenty of moments to learn from. I feel like I'm a better driver now, certainly, than I was at the beginning of the season. But everyone’s going to do it.

“And when I’m racing against Max, a four-time World Champion, when I’m racing against Oscar, a guy who at some point in the future will probably beat me and be a World Champion, I’m performing, and I’m having to perform against the best in the world. I look forward to plenty more times like that.

“I need to understand what I can do better, how can I do better, how can I perform more consistently against them and learn from them? And I feel like I did that this year, and I've got to do that even more next year if I want to retain what we've been able to achieve this year.”