Flawless Execution from McLaren Crowns a New World Champion
In the final battle of the season, the combined effort of driver and team saw the McLaren loyalist Lando Norris become the 2025 Formula 1 World Champion. Victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix went to the former champion Max Verstappen, and second was claimed by Oscar Piastri, but Norris only needed to finish on the podium to secure the title. This comes only one week after the team’s self-inflicted disaster in Qatar, where both drivers raced well but fell short due to poor strategy. In Abu Dhabi, the team strategists were on point with their pit stops, successfully keeping their drivers solidly in the top three for the duration of the race.
Over the season, McLaren has come under fire for the use of their “Papaya Rules,” which refers to how they directed their drivers so as to avoid favoring one over the other. This was especially controversial when they would issue team orders to ensure “fair racing,” such as when a slow pit stop had Norris lose his position to Piastri in Monza. Piastri showed clear frustration with this order, as slow pit stops were meant to be just another part of racing, and not something to swap position over. Using team orders this way made it look as if the team was favoring Norris, though they’ve denied any such motivations. Today, the team used wildly different pit strategies to maintain their respective positions. Following Verstappen’s stop, Piastri led the race for a significant time, staying out for more than 40 laps on his initial hard tires in an attempt to keep Verstappen from gaining more ground. Piastri fell back into second after his stop, but the effort to stifle the Red Bull was admirable and would have been effective on any other driver.
In contrast to Piastri’s single stop, Norris was on a two-stop strategy that worked entirely to his benefit. Careful timing on his second stop allowed him to return to the track without giving up a position and creating ideal conditions to overtake his teammate, though he was never able to do so. Fresh tires also helped him stay well ahead of Charles LeClerc, who had been threatening an overtake for much of the race. Norris avoided making aggressive moves, as even a minor penalty would have cost him the title. The closest he came to a penalty was during an incident with Red Bull second seat Yuki Tsunoda, who made too many movements while defending. Norris briefly went outside the white lines as he made the overtake, but an investigation from the FIA found Tsunoda at fault and penalized him appropriately. Norris kept a cool head despite the pressure and losing his initial position. McLaren finally pulled through on strategy at the moment it mattered most, and crowned their first World Champion since 2008.
