In the end, Lando Norris held his nerve, and his lead. Three drivers came into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with a chance to win the championship, but it was Norris who did exactly what he needed to: a podium would guarantee a championship win, and a podium he achieved. He beat four-time champion Max Verstappen by two points and his teammate Oscar Piastri by 13, and put 15 years of Red Bull and Mercedes domination in the ground to help herald in a a new era of racing. Not too shabby for a driver who people were beginning to write off a third of the way into the season.
Let's get the negativity out of the way. Despite the potential of a three-way championship battle and all the discourse about team orders, the race itself was, honestly, a bit of a dud. Like much of the year before Max Verstappen's abrupt ascension and McLaren's late-season self-sabotage, it was a primarily mathematical endeavor; the top three drivers in the championship qualified in the top three, and all Norris had to do was maintain his place. Bar a remarkable overtake by Piastri around the outside of Norris in the opening lap of the race, and some early pressure from the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, there was little tension across the race's 58 laps. There were no safety cars, no retirements, no tough strategy calls. Verstappen and Piastri, who was virtually running an entirely separate race, barely felt relevant to Norris's personal championship battle, which was intentionally more concerned with the final podium spot and Leclerc than any potential victory.
That is to take nothing away from Norris's drive, which characterized how he won the championship: brave in the key moments, not collapsing under pressure, and never letting a podium opportunity slip away. Whenever there was potential for shenanigans, Norris averted the danger. After George Russell and Leclerc pit, McLaren pit Norris to cover them both off. As Norris came up against a stretch of drivers who had yet to pit, risking seconds of time loss, he made use of the first opportunities allotted to him. He took a brave move on the Kimi Antonelli, which allowed him to pass Carlos Sainz Jr. soon after, on a more conventional stretch of track. When he came up to Lance Stroll and Liam Lawson—the latter driving for Red Bull's sister team, which would most certainly never interfere for the main team's sake, no sirree—he passed both drivers in one move to dodge a DRS train or interference.
The greatest moment of risk for Norris arose shortly after, when he came up to Verstappen's teammate at Red Bull, Yuki Tsunoda. Tsunoda, who will remain with the team as a reserve driver but does not have a seat for next year, was nevertheless put on hard tires with the expectation of pulling a 2021 Sergio Pérez. To Tsunoda's credit, he tried, pulling a weaving act on the straight and squeezing Norris close to the wall on his overtake attempt. But Norris fully committed to a pass that was very bold, considering the context and what happened the last time he tried such an overtake: He stuck his car on the painted, off-line stretch, and didn't let Tsunoda bully him out. So much for a 2021 Sergio Pérez. No sooner had Norris met Tsunoda than he passed him.
Considering the incident with Tsunoda, perhaps it was better that the race was dull, as there was potential for the championship to be decided, once again, by race control. The stewards chose to investigate the overtake, looking at Norris for overtaking off track and Tsunoda for weaving on the straight. Saddling Norris with a penalty for not ceding the position back to Tsunoda would have felt awful—Norris almost immediately put 10 seconds of daylight between them—and that's without the lack of legal precedent for doing so. Traditionally, overtaking off track is given for cutting corners; not for taking room on the straight. Thankfully, the stewards decided not to penalize Norris, though they did, perhaps to help justify that decision, saddle poor Tsunoda with a five-second time penalty. Norris's team smartly did not inform him of the investigation at any point during the race.
So Norris finished the race blessedly happy and even his championship rivals ended the season the best ways they could, with a 1-2 finish. Perhaps the sweetest part of Norris's victory for the McLaren team is that he performed well on his own merit, allowing Piastri to finish the race without any team orders sourness. He will only be left to nurse the heartbreak of losing a 34-point lead, and he's had the soft off-ramp of a few races, now, to help come to terms with it.
Meanwhile, Verstappen had moments across the season he could rue, most notably the nine points he lost for deliberately crashing into Russell in Barcelona. Then again, he could take the stroke of fortune with McLaren's double disqualification in Las Vegas and call it even. Since the F1 summer break, serious championship contention was always a perk for Verstappen, and not an expectation. Verstappen was borderline chipper after the race. "What a comeback in the second half of the season. We can be really, really proud of that," he said over the radio. "Don't be too disappointed. I'm definitely not disappointed." In the cooldown room, he turned to Norris and told him, with the authority of someone who has already won four championships, to expect a long night ahead.
It was Norris, though, who had the successful comeback, and the sweetest debut championship celebration for it. It is easy, for Norris's youth, to overlook the years he's spent in F1. At age 26, he became the 35th driver to win a F1 World Drivers' Championship, and with all the pressure gone, he seemed, for a moment, very young, almost like the puckish 19-year-old he was when he first joined the team. During the cooldown lap, McLaren CEO Zak Brown came on and hit him with the, "Uh, Lando, this is Zak, from McLaren. Is this the World Champion hot line?" Norris responded, the best he could throw simultaneous laughter and tears, "Yeah. [long bleep] Thank you guys. Oh my god, you've made it history. [Unintelligible], thanks so much. I love you guys, thanks for everything, you deserve it. I love you, mum, I love you, dad, thanks for everything." And then, fully crying: "I'm not crying."
He did celebratory donuts under the fireworks. In parc fermé, Sainz, Norris's good friend and former teammate at McLaren, gave him a big hug that was rivaled in quality only by Norris's mother. During the post-race interview, he seemed to have just about gotten his tears in order. He took the time to thank his team, but as he got to his parents, the tears started again. "I'm not crying," he said again, through tears. And then, aglow with joy and the greatest victory in motorsport: "Ah, I look like a loser."
