F1 2025 recap: Lando Norris should have achieved his F1 dream much sooner

Although Lando Norris held on in Abu Dhabi to clinch his first world title, there's a feeling that it could have been wrapped up much sooner – but Formula 1's commercial types were hardly upset that the championship fight went down to the final round.

Some of the mitigating factors were down to McLaren's mistakes, while others were due to bad luck, but it's fair to say Norris has not been entirely flawless either. Early-season shakiness, particularly in qualifying, prompted Norris to look inwardly in an attempt to rescue his title chances.

A strong start to the year with victory in Australia was soon dampened by a run of mistakes and iffy performances across the early-season flyaways – qualifying mistakes in China, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia cost him the championship lead to team-mate Oscar Piastri. It was the Jeddah miscue that hurt Norris the most: his slap into the wall in Q3 ensured that he lined up mid-grid, thus precipitating the events that put Piastri at the head of the title fight.

Aside from Norris' off-track soul-searching, a minor suspension change was implemented for Canada in response to drivers' feedback that the front end had been 'numb'. While Piastri didn't fancy changing things, Norris was afforded an iota of greater front-end feeling, although points were ultimately left on the table in Montreal after his clash with Piastri late into the race.

Lando Norris, McLaren

After digging deep and changing his approach to Saturdays, results started to come to Norris from Austria and beyond. A string of good form, including three wins in four races, counted on a few slices of luck – or, alternatively, mistakes from other drivers. For example, Piastri dampened his own chances at Silverstone under the wet-weather safety car, and Norris then took advantage of a one-stopper to clinch victory in Hungary. That string of fortune was brought to a shuddering halt by his oil leak in Zandvoort, and a missed chance in Baku as Piastri floundered kicked the can further down the road.

Norris nonetheless reclaimed the championship lead in Mexico with a flawless weekend, as Piastri embarked on his own period of struggle. It was such that the championship would have been done and dusted in Qatar, even with McLaren's pitstop malfeasance, had the team not been double-disqualified in Las Vegas for excessive plank wear. McLaren's occasional bout of profligacy rather helped Max Verstappen reel off a string of quality races to break into the title fight – but Norris deserves considerable credit for turning his form around.

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