Lando Norris has revealed he will be racing with the number 1 on his McLaren next season after winning the 2025 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship.
Norris secured his maiden F1 title at the Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday after beating both team-mate Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen to the crown.
After 24 gruelling rounds in 2025, the McLaren driver prevailed over the Dutchman by just two points.
Verstappen had mounted a rampant comeback since the summer shutdown – winning six of the last 10 rounds.
However, the 26-year-old’s third-place finish in Abu Dhabi sealed the Woking-based team’s first Drivers’ title since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
Verstappen, who raced with the No. 1 on his car for over 1,000 days after his title triumph over Hamilton in 2021, will finally have to relinquish it.
Norris revealed that he intends to take over from the Red Bull driver – choosing the racing number reserved for the World Champion as his preferred option for 2026.
“It’s tradition. It’s there for a reason. It’s there because you can go and try grab it and you can work hard to try and get it,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“All of us as a team that gets to have a role in McLaren, or my car, will get to wear that with pride.
“It’s all my mechanics, my engineers, everyone that’s part of McLaren gets to have that acknowledgement too.
“So it’s not for me, it’s for them as well. It’s their pride, knowing that they put a lot of work and effort into everything that they can also go ‘we’re number one’.
“It’s not as cool when you say ‘we are number four’ so they will be even happier than I am!”
READ MORE – What Lando Norris said after winning the F1 title in Abu Dhabi
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