A jubilant Lando Norris told the assembled media throng after winning the Formula 1 championship that doing it “my way” was what pleased him the most about his triumph.
The Briton crossed the line in third place in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to seal the deal, clinching it by just two points from Max Verstappen, who won the race.
Norris overcame early-season setbacks to bring himself back into the title race in the final third of the campaign to become Britain’s 11th World Champion, and the 35th overall.
The McLaren driver also helped the Woking-based squad to its first clean sweep of both Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles since 1998.
After the race, Norris told media including Motorsport Week that pitting himself up against others and being his own man was a huge source of pride in his title success.
“Look, I hate ever having to try and compare myself to other people,” he said. “This is all for you guys to decide whether someone’s better than someone else or not.
“All I try and do every weekend is the best of what I can. Whether then you decide he’s better than him or he’s got a worse car and he’s doing better.
“Write what you like, decide what you like. This is all for people on the outside to decide. I certainly feel like at moments I’ve driven better than I feel like other people can.
“I feel like I’ve drove at a level I don’t think other people can match. But have I also made my mistakes? Have I made more mistakes than other people at times? Yes.
“Is there stuff Max [Verstappen] could do better at times than me? Yes. Do I believe he’s unbeatable? No.
“But you also don’t know. It’s hard to know. They also struggled with the car in the mid part of the season.
“They had an incredible second half of the season. They took advantage of the fact we have two of us fighting for a World Championship. He really made the most of that.
“Max drove like he’s a four-time World Champion. I’m very happy that I got to race against him and try to prove myself against him.
“Whatever you want to write against me or whatever it is, feel free. Like I said at the beginning, my motivation is not here to prove I’m better than someone else. That’s not what makes me happy.
“I’m not going to wake up tomorrow and go, ‘I’m so happy because I beat Max’. I honestly don’t care about that.
“I don’t care if every article is, you think he’s better than me or Oscar is better or whatever it is. It doesn’t matter. I have no interest in that.
“I’ve just done what I needed to do to win the World Championship. That’s it. And I made my people happy. And that’s all I really care about in the end of the day.
“I don’t care about he’s better than who, he’s better than whatever. This isn’t something I want to think about. It’s not something I have to think about. And it isn’t something that brings me joy or puts a smile on my face. That’s not my motivation at all. It might be his, it might be other drivers. I want to prove I’m the best in the world, but it’s not mine.
“Like I said, I’m not going to wake up happy tomorrow because I can just go and say to myself, ‘I’m World Champion’. It might make me smile, but it’s not going to be the truth.
“It’s going to be, my mum’s happy, my dad’s happy, my sisters are happy, my brother’s happy, my friends are happy, and that’s all I need in my life.”
How unapologetic honesty helped Norris reach the top on his own terms
Norris continued that winning the title ‘Lando’s way’ – a phrase he revealed was dubbed by McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella – was a core principle of the triumph.
“Again, that’s one of the things that makes me most proud is I feel like I’ve managed to win it the way I wanted to win it, which was not by being someone I’m not, not trying to be as aggressive as Max or as forceful as other champions might have been in the past, whatever it may be,” he expressed.
“I’m happy, I won it my way. I’m happy I could go out and be myself and win it ‘Lando’s way’, as Andrea would tell me. And that certainly makes me happy.
“Like I said at the beginning, could I have gone out and been more of the person you probably want me to be at times? I could have done. I would have been less proud about it in some ways.
“So that’s why I’m very happy with myself in terms of I kept my cool, I kept to myself, I kept the focus on myself and I got the most out of how I am.”
Norris admitted that whilst he often regrets certain comments he makes in the midst of raw emotion, he made no apologies for showing the world himself at his most vulnerable.
“And I know at times I say some stupid things,” he continued. “I say some things about Max, or I might have said some things in the past about Lewis [Hamilton].
“Some things I regret and I wish I could take back and never have come out of my mouth.
“But I honestly believe I give more respect to anyone else than anyone else. I give more respect to Oscar, I give more respect to Max, I try and do as much respect as I can to Lewis; he’s the best driver that’s ever been in Formula 1. I’m not even close to that. I might never be.
“I dream of those kind of things. I dream of today and I’ve managed to achieve one of seven [titles] compared to him. And do I certainly regret some of the comments I might have said in cool-down rooms or whatever it is? Yes.
“But a lot of those are in the heat of the moment and by the time I say that I’m going, ‘Why the hell did I just say that?’ So I try and be as genuine as I can.
“I try and always speak the truth. I never try and give you guys false understandings of things. If I think we’re going to win, I think we’re going to win. If I think Red Bull are going to be faster or Ferrari are going to be faster… I have no gain by trying to hide things from you guys.
“Deep down, do I really hate when you write crap about me? I do. It’s also life and I’ve learned to live with some of those things more.
“And I also value that everyone has their own opinions, whether they like me or not or think someone else is better or not, like we just spoke about.
“What I’m happy is that I did things my way this season. I went in my way, my style of just trying to be a good person and a good team member. And I’m proud about that.
“No matter what other people want to write about and say about it, no one really knows the truth apart from the people on the inside in terms of what’s going on.
“And I don’t need to listen to those things. As long as I know I’ve done a good job, which I have now proven to myself I have, then that’s the only thing that I really need to listen to is now myself and my team. And that’s all I need.”
READ MORE – Max Verstappen wins Abu Dhabi GP, Lando Norris third to seal F1 title
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