Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris has published his first vlog since winning the 2025 drivers' championship. Offering fans of the driver a well-earned recap, he covered what he felt as he brought his McLaren to a third-place finish at Abu Dhabi.
In the video, Norris describes the week leading up to the season finale as being "the biggest race of my life," adding that he "didn't know how to act" as he readied himself for a minimum third-place finish that would allow him to win the championship, beating Red Bull rival Max Verstappen and team-mate Oscar Piastri.
"It's pretty much every boy's dream to win something, and when you're so young, you always hope or dream like you want to win it one day, but you never actually think you can. We did it," he told the camera ahead of the FIA prize-giving ceremony held in Uzbekistan.
"The week leading up to the biggest race of my life... and I didn't know how to be. I didn't know how to act. I didn't know how I was meant to be.
"I didn't know if I was meant to be really excited or scared. I thought I'd be pretty damn nervous 'cause I do, I mean I get nervous every race, every qualifying, like always. That's a normal thing. I thought it'd be a bit too chaotic for me.
"But in fact, getting in the car, I actually felt pretty ready. I felt very calm. Just another day in the office, I felt ready. I still knew in my head, 'this is it and the time had come.'”
The McLaren driver clinched his maiden F1 title at Yas Marina, finishing behind both Verstappen and Piastri after a tense chase involving the Briton and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. But the 26-year-old had plenty more to give as he sailed his Woking machinery over the finish line, securing the championship by two points.
"Felt like a normal race, genuinely felt like a normal race. But two laps to go, and then time starts to slow down a little bit. You start thinking of every little screw, every bolt, every wire. I'm imagining inside my car what everything is doing.
"You're in that moment of, 'damn what could go wrong 'cause everything's going right'. Your mind starts thinking of these little things. I just started thinking of my first day in a go-kart. I was on a kind of mini tennis court and we put some slicks on the go-kart and I was just doing some donuts and having some fun."
His parents were waiting in the garage. His mum, Cisca Wauman, had tears in her eyes.
“All of a sudden, I pictured my mom in the garage. That was the first time, the first moment the whole year I just about started to realise what was happening - what was about to happen. And all I did was picture the garage, picture my parents there, my brother, my sisters, all in the garage for the final four corners."
Describing the moment as "unforgettable," the driver now sits alongside the likes of Michael Schumacher, Niki Lauda and Lewis Hamilton as an F1 champion.
"Thank you very much," he says, extending his gratitude to his fans. "It's been a pleasure to represent you, to do my best for you every single weekend. Thanks for being there for me. And I'll go lift the trophy while I'm thinking of everyone that's been part of this journey together."
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