The 2025 season is over, and Lando Norris is a world champion.
He clinched the title by just two points after crossing the line in third shortly after Max Verstappen claimed victory ahead of Oscar Piastri, becoming the first McLaren man to win the Drivers' Championship since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
As is often the case with season finales in Abu Dhabi - I long for the day we move them back to Brazil - the last race of the season wasn't exactly thrilling, but it was highly engrossing, being the most tense few hours of F1 since the famous 2021 edition of the race.
Here are my main takeaways from it.
Norris earns his stripes
When a driver wins a title in the strongest car on the grid, it can sometimes feel like they only prevailed because of that car.
However, even if it's fair to say that Verstappen would've claimed this year's championship with more capable machinery, it still feels like Norris fully earned it.
That's largely because of how he sealed the deal in the final race. He was under immense pressure from the start, knowing the title would slip from his grasp if he lost just one position. And yet, even with Charles Leclerc always close behind him and overtakes required after his first pit-stop, the Brit didn't make a single error.
That would be more impressive for any driver, but it's especially impressive for Norris. He has crumbled under pressure time and time again in his F1 career, but experiencing more than ever before, he kept his cool to overcome what has been his biggest shortcoming.
His status as world champion also feels so deserved because he had to overcome some seriously bad luck along the way.
Some are playing down his achievement, pointing out that Verstappen would've prevailed without Kimi Antonelli's late mistake in Qatar, which gave the McLaren driver the two points he ultimately beat the Dutchman by. To them, I'd like to point out that, putting together his mechanical failure in the Netherlands & disqualification in Las Vegas, Norris lost a total of 36 points through no fault of his own.
Add in the fact that he overcame a huge deficit held by someone in the same car as him, and it's as clear as day that, while he had the best machinery and got a small slice of luck in the penultimate race, he's absolutely a worthy world champion.
Red Bull's big weakness comes back to bite
While the cars haven't been perfect, Verstappen and Red Bull have been a well-oiled machine on race day for years now. The driver barely puts a foot wrong, and the team nearly always nail their strategies and pit stops. However, they've long had one major weakness, and it cost them dearly in Abu Dhabi.
As Norris approached the teammate of his title rival, who had been instructed to hold him up as much as possible, it was impossible not to think back to when Lewis Hamilton was in an identical situation in 2021. However, things couldn't have played out more differently.
Back then, the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez did a remarkable job for Verstappen. With a combination of clever tactics and perfect wheel-to-wheel racing, he cost Hamilton seven seconds, which meant that the Brit didn't have a big enough lead to pit for fresh tyres when a late Safety Car came out, and as a result, the Dutchman was able to pass him on the final lap.
Four years on, the only thing Yuki Tsunoda could do to try and slow down Norris was to dangerously weave around and illegally force the McLaren off track, picking up a penalty in the process. He just didn't have the pace or the race craft to do anything more.
Verstappen lacking a wingman is nothing new, with it being the case since Perez's pace disappeared early last season, but he'd never before needed one as much as he did on Sunday. Now, Red Bull will really be rueing the fact that they've failed to give him one.
While Verstappen being the sole team leader and not having to battle a teammate like the McLarens have to does have its advantages, what he really needs is someone not fast enough to take points from but fast enough to help him get more. Both he and his team will now be praying more than ever that Isack Hadjar can fill that role next season.
However, the team also need to look inward, given that drivers who struggled alongside Verstappen have performed much better elsewhere, showing that Red Bull failed to get the best out of them. Producing a car that only one of your drivers can master isn't ideal, however good that one driver is, and they've paid the price for it now.
A new kind of champion
Watching one of Norris' first interviews after the race, his comments on Piastri really struck me. With a smile on his face, he sincerely stated that his teammate was going to get the better of him in the future and that he 'sadly' had more seasons ahead of him in which he'd be battling the Aussie.
Norris has always been completely honest and open about his feelings, but it feels surreal to hear such comments coming from someone who has just become a world champion.
Drivers at the very top of the sport have always been like machines outside of the car, being completely steadfast in their belief that they're the best in the world, presumably thinking that to do anything else would be a sign of weakness that they didn't want to show their competitors.
Norris had never adopted such an approach, publicly admitting his shortcomings and his struggles. In the eyes of many, that showed that he'd never be one of the very best, but he's proved them wrong now.
His former teammate and good friend Carlos Sainz said it best: "He's a driver that doesn't follow the typical stereotypes of a world champion, he's always stayed true to himself, very honest, very open about his own struggles and proven to everyone you can be world champion being a nice guy, or don't have to be ruthless or badass."
For years, young drivers have entered the sport feeling a need to always keep any feelings of doubt buried inside, but Norris has shown that you can have a much healthier relationship with your emotions and still succeed.
He's a new kind of world champion, a more human kind, and serving as an inspiration for the next generation, maybe he'll be the first of many.
