Lando Norris stood tall on the top step of the podium in Abu Dhabi, the emotions of the moment sinking in as the United Kingdom’s national anthem played.
It had been just over a quarter of a century since McLaren brought home Formula One’s biggest trophy. The last time it won the constructors’ championship was in 1998, before its current drivers, Norris and Oscar Piastri, were born. And while that trophy was a season-long endeavor and happened because of the team effort turning around a car that was point-less and struggling in the opening races of 2023, actually winning the title on Sunday rested largely on Norris’ shoulders.
Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen collided on Lap 1, sending the McLaren driver tumbling from his second-place start and leaving the Dutchman with a 10-second penalty. Then came Piastri’s moment with Williams’ Franco Colapinto, where the stewards found the McLaren driver at fault and handed him a 10-second penalty as well. He eventually powered back for a points finish, but in the meantime, it left Norris exposed to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, the latter of whom recovered from a P19 start to P8 by the end of Lap 1.
McLaren led Ferrari by 21 points heading into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and as the sun set and the cars danced under the lights, Ferrari ultimately couldn’t catch McLaren. But Norris needed a near-perfect, mistake-free race from lights out to the checkered flag to keep the Woking-based team’s dream alive.
“The time (since) I joined McLaren (to) now 2024, end of the season, celebrating a championship means, if you want, that we have gone almost through a circle,” team principal Andrea Stella said. “I often mention to the team the fact that, first race in 2015 in Australia, between our lap in Q1 and the pole position, there were five seconds, three seconds between in Q1 to the best lap in Q1 and five seconds to the pole position. We have gone all the way.
“And we have gone all the way thanks to great resilience, thanks to great belief.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, McLaren faced a difficult financial position. CEO Zak Brown told select media, including The Athletic, earlier this weekend that the company was able to pay its bills; however, “We were definitely on the brink.” At the end of 2020, part of the team was subsequently sold to American sports investment group MSP Sports Capital.
That cash advancement, which amounted to £185 million ($235.8 million), aided McLaren’s turnaround. Infrastructure was improved with the financial stability, and it began reflecting in the results, like the 1-2 Italian GP finish in 2021 that ended McLaren’s nine-year win drought. For the last two seasons, it has been a consistent frontrunner, particularly after the 2023 Austrian GP upgrade.
“The biggest change was last year,” Aston Martin and former McLaren driver Fernando Alonso said Sunday. “They did not much in 2019. They did not much in 2020. They did not much in 2021. They did not much in 2022. They did not much in 2023 until Austria, that they were in the podium.”
He went on to highlight how that Austria upgrade package was the beginning of a series of technical leaps, rocketing the team toward the sport’s top dogs. From that July 2023 weekend on, you could see the threat McLaren posed if it continued its development path. Norris and Piastri secured double podium finishes at Japan and Qatar in 2023, a combined haul that amounted to 80 points. McLaren ended 2023 fourth in the standings, and the expectation was that Red Bull and Verstappen would continue its dominant streak in 2024.
But what if?
It was a quiet start to 2024 for McLaren, Norris securing two podium finishes in the first five races. It wasn’t until his Miami Grand Prix win in May, round six, that the title started to shift. The top of the grid as a whole became more competitive as the top four teams dominated the podium, with Verstappen going on a lengthy winless streak. But McLaren found consistency with Norris and Piastri. Not every race was clean, whether the drivers made a mistake or there was a strategy mess-up from the team. But it stayed there or thereabouts, steadily creeping up on Red Bull.
Piastri’s Round 17 win in Azerbaijan was the tipping point, sending McLaren past the reigning world champions. And as the remainder of the season unfolded, fans watched as Norris’ performance became cleaner, a crucial development that not only helped his confidence but readied him for a showdown in the season finale.
McLaren emerged as the star of the last race weekend quite early on, topping the timesheets for two out of three practice sessions. Norris and Piastri went on to secure a 1-2 start for the grand prix, and there was reason for optimism heading into Sunday in Abu Dhabi.
That is until the Lap 1 incident.
Verstappen drove up the inside of Piastri in Turn 1, and the two collided. At that moment when Verstappen spun Piastri, the McLaren driver later told the media what went through his head was, “This sucks.”
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“At that point, I knew I needed to try and get my way back through,” he continued. “And, I knew it was going to be tough. But yeah, I had my come together with Colapinto, that was pretty much the nail in the coffin for my race.”
Verstappen did apologize to the Australian driver. The Dutchman added, “It’s not what you want to happen and especially not with him. He’s a great guy. But, it happened and it’s just a bit unfortunate.”
From there, all eyes fell on Norris. He said when discussing Piastri’s opening lap moment, “For a minute, my heart was like, ‘Oh God, it’s not looking as likely.’ But if I just kept my head down and kept focused, I knew I could deliver and do what I got to do.”
Norris, Sainz and Leclerc survived the opening lap chaos, which also included Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez colliding. Leclerc started on the last row but nailed numerous overtakes, finding himself in eighth after the opening lap. But even with the pressure of the Ferrari duo behind him, Norris remained steadfast. His radio messages sounded calm, and he steadily built a gap to Sainz.
“I was watching the TV screens, and I saw Charles was P8 after lap one, so I was a little bit nervous,” Norris said. “But I knew I just had to focus on myself, put my head down, and Carlos was never far away. I think the biggest I got the gap was to 4.2 seconds in the first stint, and that’s not a very nice gap, in my opinion. It’s a bit too close to my comfort.”
The Briton later said during the post-race news conference that Sainz is a driver you expect to be there and fight. “In all of my meetings this morning, I was saying to the guys, like, let’s be careful of Carlos, OK? Because I was ready for him to attack a lot and put up a good fight.”
Sainz managed to keep Norris within reach during that first stint. He said after the grand prix, “Before the race, we knew that McLaren might have one or two-tenths of pace on us, and that was enough, you know, to pull a bit of a gap before the pit stops or during the race to have a bit of a buffer and not to feel too much pressure.”
Ferrari opted to undercut, pitting Sainz before Norris, just in case McLaren’s stop was a bit slower, which would put the Spaniard within reach. But Norris emerged from the pits ahead of Sainz, and the Ferrari driver said, “After he came out in front of me, you go through this thought process of do I push like hell now to get within DRS, but Lando can also push and keep me out of the DRS. And that means I’m going to destroy my tires and not have a chance at the end of the race of putting him under pressure. Or I save my tires to try and put them under pressure at the end like I did in the first stint.
“It’s (a) very difficult thing to judge with these tires to use the first three laps to extract the peak of the tire or to save that to the end of the race. I don’t think it would have mattered.”
When the hard tires were put on, Norris picked up the pace, something we’ve seen multiple times this season with McLaren. Sainz commented how “they started pulling away two, three-tenths per lap, and that was enough for them to have that safety margin and bring it home.”
The 2024 season taught us all many lessons — especially about Norris. After securing P2 in the driver standings this season, he said he learned to believe in himself more and is “happy about it now that I’m going to go into next season knowing that I can fight.”
As the fireworks went off at Yas Marina Circuit, cheers erupted from the McLaren camp. Team members leaned over the fencing as Norris rolled past, and plenty of hugs were exchanged. Norris high-fived numerous members, shared a hug with Brown and even a moment with his father, Adam. Norris turned to the camera at one point with a massive grin and his hands on his cheeks, not bothering to contain the excitement of this moment.
McLaren is the team he’s chosen to stand beside. He joined its young driver program in 2017 and made his F1 debut in 2019. Even during the struggle periods since, Norris extended his contract, betting on the papaya.
Twenty-six years is a long, long time to wait. And it took a true team effort — at the factory and trackside — as thousands of employees poured hours into the car and strategy, as the drivers made sacrifices and learned from mistakes, as the team grew and dreamed of this moment.
It could all reset in 2025, depending on the development choices teams make over the winter. F1 will be back in action in less than 100 days. But right now, it’s McLaren’s turn in the spotlight.
“Delivering that for the team has put the biggest smile as possible on everyone’s face,” Norris said. “This is the biggest reward you can give back to everyone who designs the car, builds the car, gets the partners. Everyone has played such a big part, so just proud. Proud is my biggest thing.
“Of course, I’m happy I finished the season this way, but I’m way more happy for the team than I am for myself.”
Additional reporting from Luke Smith.
Top photo: Bryn Lennon – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images
