Lando Norris was crowned the new Formula One world champion at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 7. At a loss for words and overcome by the sheer weight of emotion, what winning his debut championship meant to the McLaren driver was writ large across his face.

What had begun as a childhood dream and at one point this season had seemingly slipped from his grasp was, finally, a reality he found hard to take in, as he sealed it with third place at the Yas Marina Circuit.

It was an enormously hard-fought season across 24 gruelling races that went to the wire. McLaren also won the constructors’ championship with six races remaining.

Despite his title rivals finishing ahead of him in the race — Red Bull’s Max Verstappen winning and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri taking second place — Norris did enough to close it out with a gutsy, nerveless drive as his podium place was just enough to pip Verstappen to the title by two points.

Norris started the season as the favourite, after McLaren’s strong end to 2024, but after winning the first race, he went through a rough patch and Piastri moved into a comfortable lead.

Norris was not at one with the car, was finding it difficult to feel the front axle when he was trying to take it to the limit in qualifying. That led to mistakes — even a big crash in Saudi Arabia — and when you start behind in F1, you tend to finish there.

But he and McLaren worked at it. The team came up with a tweak to the front suspension aimed at improving feel. It was a small thing. It made a small difference. From there, he slowly improved, began to build momentum, but it was more about the work he was putting in behind the scenes.

He knew what he needed to be better at and he worked on it. It was a mental approach as much as a change in driving, and slowly it began to make a difference.

“It started after I had that kind of bad run in race two, three, four, five, six, that kind of area,” he said.

“Certainly, the bad run of results and lack of performance opened up the doors to go and understand: ‘OK, I need to do more than just try again next weekend. I need to try and understand things on a deeper level.’

“That opened up understanding myself more. That’s the level I’ve got to be at. And yes, certainly the struggles turned into strength.”

A disconsolate Norris had pleaded, “Just want to go have a burger and go home”, when his hopes had taken a nosedive after he failed to finish at the Dutch Grand Prix in August.

Yet, it was a testament to the resolution he has shown all season that while down, he was far from out, as he proved in going on to claim the title.

When Norris took the world championship, he became the first British champion since Lewis Hamilton took his last title in 2020 and, similar to Hamilton for his first win in 2008, he had to show his absolute determination to close it out after a rollercoaster ride.

“It’s incredible. It is pretty surreal. I’ve dreamed of this for a long, long time,” said the 26-year-old, who started his F1 career as a test and reserve driver with McLaren. “I feel like I did my part for the team this year and I’m very proud of myself for that. I’m even more proud for everyone who I hopefully made cry.”

Norris has an idea for a painting, one that would capture everything he saw and felt in the final laps before he became champion and which he would hang on his wall as a record of what can only be described as an out-of-body experience.

Speaking a day after the most momentous event of his life, Norris related how memories and sensations, and thoughts of family and friends, had played out like “the montage of my life” in his head.

The last two laps before crossing the line in third place were the best memory of all. “I really want to get someone to do a painting of me. I need to find an artist, but from my view,” the Briton said.

“My eyes, coming around, with the visor and the bumps and everything, seeing all the papayas (McLaren colours) and just seeing the chequered flag, and that moment of coming around the last corner, lifting off and then I can have both my gloves here (in front of his face) because I started to cry...

“I want to save that moment. Because that was really the ‘it’ moment.”

Three laps from the end, he had wondered how it would hit him to be champion, and he feared he might not feel anything.

And then it happened.

“It’s like a movie, when you get those flashbacks at the end and you see that style of last moments of someone. It’s not the last moments for me but it was like that,” he said.

“I was watching me ... just being able to watch me and watch me drive around but all within the space of a couple of minutes.

“I’m watching from above. (Like) God. I’m just watching from a bird’s-eye, helicopter view.”

McLaren had the British teenager on their books for two years before fast-tracking him into F1’s galaxy of stars in 2019. A firecracker in his junior career, with a penchant for pole positions and wheel-to-wheel tussles, Norris didn’t let them down.

A maiden podium came in 2020, with more following in the subsequent two seasons as he dominated another more senior teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, to firmly establish himself in F1’s top tier.

It was the 2024 season that finally brought Norris his breakthrough win — along with three more — as he became the biggest challenger to Verstappen’s drivers’ crown and led McLaren to their first constructors’ title since 1998.

He went one better the following year, winning seven times and proving wrong those who doubted his mental strength by staging a late-season comeback to overhaul a 34-point standings deficit and beat Verstappen and McLaren teammate Piastri to the championship.

The focus for the future is allying artistry and ambition on track, as McLaren rely on him to help keep them on top for 2026’s era of new technical regulations.

Norris hopes the downforce will be with him.