Lando Norris
McLaren
Mercedes
Red Bull
Ferrari
Williams
Racing Bulls
Aston Martin
Haas
Alpine
McLaren driver Lando Norris will need to stay as insulated as possible heading into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and won’t want to bump into former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone on the grid before the most important race of his career.
Lando Norris heads into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with a 12-point advantage over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
McLaren wrapped up the constructors’ championship all the way back at the beginning of October in Singapore, but have made incredibly hard work of securing their first double since 1998.
Who is going to win the 2025 Formula 1 drivers’ championship?
For much of the campaign, it looked like Oscar Piastri would be the man to deliver McLaren’s first drivers’ championship since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
However, the Australian is very much the outsider in the first three-way title decider since 2010.
McLaren are trying to protect Norris at all costs, but Bernie Ecclestone has given a variety of reasons why he thinks Verstappen is going to secure a fifth consecutive title in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration
Bernie Ecclestone says Lando Norris is ‘over-confident’ and makes Max Verstappen claim
Ecclestone was speaking to the Daily Mail ahead of another season finale, and asked who he thinks will win the championship. He said: “I still believe Max will do it. He deserves it. I used to say Alain Prost was the best driver of all time, doing it on his own without a radio to the pit wall telling him what to do, but I think Max is the best I have known. He stands alone.
“Lando is fine, a really good driver, but he is over-confident, too cocky, believing his own publicity, but he gets nervous at crunch moments and can’t quite deliver the way Max can when the pressure is on.
“I said from the start of the season that Max would do it in the end, and I still believe that is the case.
Who do you think will clinch the 2025 title this weekend?
‘McLaren have been very helpful to Lando over Oscar, supporting him over the other guy, such as changing them around in Monza after Lando had a bad pit stop, and that way of working may yet be good for them, I don’t know. It’s not what I would have done. A bad pit stop is part of racing. You have to accept it, not engineer it.
“But you can never bet against Max. He is something special. He is one-off, and a super-nice guy, and I hope he gets the job done.
“He has nothing to lose, so that is also an advantage, too.”
READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
Max Verstappen’s record in Abu Dhabi makes for worrying reading for Lando Norris
The 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be Verstappen’s 11th appearance at the circuit in Formula 1.
His rookie campaign didn’t end well, qualifying 11th and finishing P16, but since his promotion to Red Bull, he’s enjoyed his visits to this circuit.
Verstappen’s victory in 2021 is by far his most famous, but before Norris won last year’s race at Yas Marina, the Dutchman was on a run of four straight victories in the United Arab Emirates.
Max Verstappen’s incredible record at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
The 28-year-old finished P6 last year, and Martin Brundle was unimpressed with Verstappen when he heard him moaning on the team radio after being handed a penalty for a collision with Piastri going into the opening corner.
Norris will recognise how much pressure he’s under this weekend, but what he would give for his two main title rivals to collide once again in Abu Dhabi.
According to Ecclestone, it might be the only way he gets his title challenge over the line this weekend.
Receive exclusive F1 news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
