Jacques Villeneuve pinpoints the moment Lando Norris became a true ‘winner’ in 2025

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Lando Norris became the 35th different driver to win the Formula 1 world championship in 2025 after producing a great comeback.

The McLaren star looked the favourite for the title in pre-season, and he justified the hype by winning the season opener in Melbourne. However, he faced a tricky first half of the season, not winning again until Monaco.

Teammate Oscar Piastri established an advantage, winning five of the opening nine races. Norris made several mistakes in qualifying, which ultimately gave the Aussie a strong lead.

McLaren think Piastri has a higher ceiling than Norris, and he was proving that by holding a 34-point lead after the Dutch GP. Norris retired from the race due to an engine failure, which appeared to end his title chances.

However, the Brit changed his approach, becoming less concerned about the noise around him, and it began to show improvements. He won two races and grabbed six podiums in the last nine races, while Piastri made costly mistakes and fell behind his teammate and Max Verstappen.

Jacques Villeneuve pinpoints Baku as the key moment Lando Norris became a true ‘winner’

For Jacques Villeneuve, the Azerbaijan GP was the turning point for Norris’ season. McLaren had a disastrous weekend, with Piastri crashing on lap one and Norris failing to capitalise, finishing seventh.

Verstappen put himself firmly in the title picture with victory, and Villeneuve thinks this sparked a change in Norris. He said on the High Performance Podcast: “We’ve seen two Landos this year, the Lando until Baku. OK, Melbourne, Melbourne was great, he was quick.

“Montreal he was aggressive. That was not a very well-calculated move, even though it was a legal move. And that really set, a little bit, the balance until Baku.

“Then you had the engine failure. So, in between the two drivers of McLaren, he had the short stick in that respect during the season. So he lost more points.

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“And Baku was really the turning point because his teammate was not there in Baku for some reason. The whole weekend went wrong and he did not use that as an opportunity.

“It should have been an easy way for him to get back onto Piastri’s level and points in the championship. And instead he had an awful weekend as well.

“And Max just appeared out of nowhere like, oh, wow, he’s a contender now. It started gradually before, but that’s when it became really clear. And that’s when we saw change in Lando.

“So up to that point, he was always separating, always the finger at himself, even when it wasn’t deserved and apologising all the time. And then from that point on, he became more like a winner in his attitude as well.”

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

Jacques Villeneuve thinks it is easier for Lando Norris to fight Max Verstappen than Oscar Piastri

In the end, Norris claimed the title by just two points over Verstappen, with Piastri finishing 13 points behind in third. There were several tense moments between the three drivers, particularly the McLaren duo, who locked horns multiple times in their championship pursuit.

Villeneuve believes that Verstappen is easier to fight for Norris than Piastri because of their relationship at McLaren and needing to work as a team.

“I guess him fighting Max is easier than him fighting his teammate. It’s a very different approach when you find a driver from a different team.

“You don’t know what strategies they’re doing, you don’t need to play nice. Against your teammate, of course, you need and you want to beat your teammate, but you also have to be friendly.

“You have to play along the team’s lines. It’s a very difficult balance as a driver where you have to be selfish because you’re in your car, it’s not like playing soccer, hockey or where you pass the ball and you can score together.

“There you’re kind of working on your own because you do have to beat your teammate. But at the same time, you have to work for the team. So it’s a very difficult balance to handle.”