‘I’ve dreamed of this for a long time’ – Norris shares emotional reaction to ‘surreal’ World Championship win in Abu Dhabi

Lando Norris has shared his emotional first reaction to winning his maiden World Championship at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with the Briton admitting that it felt “surreal” to realise a dream he has been chasing for many years.

While victory in the season finale went to Max Verstappen – and Oscar Piastri claimed second place – a P3 result was enough for Norris to take the crown by two points from Verstappen, while Piastri had to settle for third in the standings.

Sharing his first thoughts after stepping out of the car, a tearful Norris paid tribute to his family and team, as well as taking a moment to acknowledge the challenge posed by Verstappen and Piastri throughout the season.

“I've not cried in a while. I didn't think I'd cry but I did,” the 26-year-old said. “It's a long journey. First of all I want to say a big thanks to my guys, everyone at McLaren. My parents... I'm not crying. My mum, my dad, they were the ones who supported me since the beginning.

“It feels amazing. Now I know what Max feels like a little bit, and I want to congratulate Max and Oscar, my two biggest competitors all season. It's been a pleasure to race against both of them, and I've learnt a lot from both of them as well.

“I've enjoyed it, it's been a long year but we did it and I'm so proud of everyone.”

Reflecting further on how it feels to claim his debut title following a hard-fought campaign, Norris – who arrived in F1 with McLaren in 2019 after joining the squad’s Driver Development Programme two years earlier – added: “It's incredible. Pretty surreal.

“I've dreamed of this for a long time, everyone does. A lot goes into a season like this, lot of ups, lot of downs, but none of that matters as long as you try and come out on top, and that's what we managed to do with an incredible team.

“All the boys and girls that I've enjoyed so many moments with. It's not just this year, it's been over the last seven, eight years I've been with McLaren. The last 16, 17 years of my life I've been trying to chase this dream and today we all did it, so I'm pretty happy.”

Sunday’s race at the Yas Marina Circuit was not necessarily all smooth sailing for Norris, who was overtaken by Piastri on Lap 1 and later had to get past the likes of Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda.

When asked how much the World Championship had been on his mind during the Grand Prix – or if he was focused on the moment – the British racer said: “Bit of both. You can't not think of it.

“I knew it was a long race to the very end, we've seen many times anything in F1 can happen and I just kept pushing until the last two or three laps [where] I could ease it off a bit, but I still wanted to fight to the end.

“That's what we did, what we had to do this season for Max chasing us the whole way, for Oscar catching up at the end. They certainly didn't make my life easy this year, but I'm happy.”

Norris also admitted that he had “no idea” that he was under investigation for his move on Tsunoda, to which the stewards subsequently deemed that no further action was required, before adding: “I didn't care, I knew what I did was fine so I had nothing to worry about.

“I was just trying to enjoy the moment. Not many people in the world, in F1, get to experience what I've experienced this season and this year. I'm happy for everyone more than me. I'm just crazy happy.”

As he becomes the 35th Formula 1 World Champion in history, the new title-holder summarised: “It's been a long journey with McLaren.

"I've been with them for like nine years, we've been through plenty of crazy difficult times and plenty of good times.

“For me to feel like I could bring something back to them, it's their first Drivers' [title] in many, many years, I feel like I did my part for the team this year and I'm very proud of myself for that, but I'm even more proud for everyone that I've hugged and made cry.”