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Lando Norris joined Jackie Stewart as a British F1 champion in 2025, after he beat Red Bull ace Max Verstappen and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to win the drivers’ title.
Norris edged Verstappen by just two points and Piastri by 13 points to win his first F1 title in 2025. The native of Bristol, England is the 11th Briton to clinch the F1 drivers’ championship crown, which Milton, Scotland native Stewart won during the 1969, 1971 and 1973 seasons.
Lewis Hamilton is the only British driver ever to win the F1 title more than Stewart, with the native of Stevenage, England a seven-time champion. Norris sits on one title alongside Mike Hawthorn, John Surtees, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Jenson Button thus far.
Verstappen had the chance to match German legend Michael Schumacher as the only driver to win five consecutive F1 titles in 2025, following the Dutchman’s dominance from 2021 to 2024. Piastri also had the chance to become only the third Australian to win the F1 title yet.
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Jackie Stewart praises Lando Norris for ‘correctly’ getting the job done to win the 2025 F1 title
Stewart believes the reason why Norris won the 2025 F1 driver’s title was because McLaren had a “good car” but, more crucially, he “correctly” got the job done. The 26-year-old had a mixed start to the year with a number of mistakes, but found consistency when it mattered.
READ MORE: Lando Norris’ first F1 drivers’ title in 2025 was defined by seven key moments
Norris overturned a 34-point deficit to Piastri after 15 rounds, in part due to losing 25 points to the Melbourne native after retiring from the Dutch Grand Prix due to an oil fitting failure. He outscored Piastri in six of the final nine rounds, while both were disqualified in Las Vegas.
Stewart told Autosport: “He’s a very stable young man. First of all, he had a very good team and he had a very good technology team, particularly [in] engineering.
“So, the car was good. [But] it doesn’t matter how good the car is if the man doesn’t get the job done correctly. He did get it correctly done.”
Jackie Stewart just revealed Oscar Piastri’s biggest flaw after his 2025 F1 title collapse
Verstappen took the most Grand Prix wins in 2025 with eight through the 24 rounds, against Norris and Piastri’s seven wins. The Red Bull driver also took the most poles with eight, after his team continued to develop their car while McLaren focused on the 2026 rules from July.
McLaren’s decision to cease the development of the MCL39 let Verstappen back into the F1 title race, with the Dutchman outscoring Norris over seven and Piastri in all nine of the final rounds. Yet Norris’ consistency held off Verstappen’s late-season resurgence to win the title.
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Norris’ 2025 F1 title proved people like Helmut Marko wrong, having often faced questions about his mental strength because of his self-deprecating remarks. Early-season errors saw Norris call himself “clueless” in Bahrain and an “idiot” in Saudi Arabia, but he won the title.
Piastri, in contrast, started strongly and won four of the first six Grands Prix and five through the opening nine rounds – over which he only finished off the podium in Australia. He even led Norris by 34 points and Verstappen by 104 after 15 rounds, which returned seven wins.
But McLaren told Piastri to give P2 in the Italian Grand Prix back to Norris in round 16 after a slower pit stop cost the latter when the team had assured him that he would remain in front if he let the former stop first. Piastri struggled to get over McLaren’s team orders at Monza.
McLaren’s team orders were still on his mind when Piastri crashed during qualifying and the Grand Prix in Azerbaijan, where he also jumped the start of the race. Also, McLaren blaming Piastri for crashing into Norris in the COTA Sprint hurt the 24-year-old’s confidence again.
Piastri also struggled on the low-grip circuits in Austin, Mexico City and Sao Paulo, as Norris stamped his claim for the 2025 F1 title. And Stewart’s praise for Norris’ ability to “correctly” get the job done in 2025 showed Piastri’s biggest flaw was his inability to see out his lead.
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