Williams’s Formula One driver Carlos Sainz lavished praise on his former teammate Lando Norris, who won the F1 Drivers’ World Championship in the 2025 season. Norris finished third in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday to claim the World Championship title for the first time in his career, ending Red Bull’s Max Verstappen’s hold on the crown.
Sainz called Norris an honest guy and said he was happy for the Briton for breaking the typical stereotypes of a world champion.
“More than anything, I’m happy for him as a person because 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 bad***,” Sainz said to the Sky Sports.
Norris is the first McLaren driver to have won the title since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Norris only needed to finish on the podium of the season-ending race to seal the victory and he finished third, behind teammate Oscar Piastri in second and race-winner Verstappen. In keeping with his late season rally, Verstappen won his third race in a row. He has won more races (eight) than any driver this year. Norris, who becomes the 11th British driver to win the title, ended the season with 423 points to Verstappen’s 421 and Piastri’s 410.
“Very happy for him as a driver because he’s always been an extremely quick driver, quicker than what people give him credit for, extremely talented,” said Sainz.
‘I saw a guy who had speed to be multiple world champion’
Sainz was Norris’ first team-mate when the latter joined McLaren as a teenager and spent the 2019 and 2020 seasons racing alongside him.
“The first years at McLaren, I saw a guy who had the speed to be multiple world champion if it was purely down to speed. Along the way, he’s developed his skills a lot and now he’s a world champion.”
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“Happy for him, I hope he stays the same, it doesn’t get in his head that he’s world champion and he keeps being himself, or even if he relaxes more, and can enjoy F1 more,” he added.