Lando Norris crowned a breakthrough season in 2025 by claiming his first Formula One world title, bringing Max Verstappen’s four-year reign to an end and ushering in a new era for the sport.
Whether the McLaren driver can repeat the feat remains the looming question.
The championship was anything but straightforward.
At 26, Norris turned a long-held dream into reality through a season of sharp swings, victories mixed with costly errors and cruel misfortune in a tense three-way fight for supremacy.
Even as he celebrated edging Red Bull’s Verstappen by two points and beating Australian teammate Oscar Piastri by 13, Norris acknowledged the triumph might yet prove fleeting.
Formula One, set to grow to 11 teams with the arrival of Cadillac, is heading toward a seismic reset next season, with a new generation of engines and the biggest technical overhaul in decades.
The usual contenders are expected to remain competitive, but nobody truly knows who will be ahead in 2026.
McLaren’s first title double since 1998
"It could be my only opportunity in my life that I get to do such a thing,” Norris said of running the champion’s No. 1 on his car next season.
"I have a lot of faith in my team, and we’ve achieved a lot in the last few years together. I’m confident we will achieve a lot more together. But Formula One is unpredictable. You never know how much things can change. You never know what can happen.”
McLaren have now won two straight constructors’ titles and this year completed the drivers’ and teams’ title double for the first time since 1998.
While Norris and Piastri were the only drivers to lead the standings, and the Briton was a deserving champion, Verstappen produced some of the season’s standout moments with one of the great comebacks in the sport’s 75-year history.
"Championships are important, but they do not tell the whole story. Sometimes the best driver does not win the title,” said Damon Hill, who dethroned Ferrari great Michael Schumacher to claim the 1996 crown.
Verstappen was at times in a league of his own against a backdrop of upheaval at Red Bull, who fired team principal Christian Horner in July and said farewell to consultant Helmut Marko in December.
The Dutch driver went from 104 points behind Piastri at the end of August to 11 ahead at the checkered flag and said it was probably the best he has driven in Formula One, a striking assessment from someone who won a record 19 of 22 races in 2023.
Verstappen won more, Piastri led longer
Norris did not win the most races or lead the championship the longest. Verstappen took eight victories, including the final three of the season, while the two McLaren drivers finished with seven wins apiece.
Piastri topped the standings from April through the end of October.
The Australian is expected to be even more determined in 2026 after a steep learning curve that at one stage appeared likely to crown him Australia’s first world champion in 45 years.
Mercedes, who power McLaren and whose factory team finished runners-up with two wins from George Russell, could also pose a much stronger challenge.
The last time the sport underwent a major engine change, in 2014, Mercedes embarked on a run of eight consecutive constructors’ titles.
Ferrari, winless and without a championship since 2008, will be under pressure to deliver after seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton failed to reach the podium in a disappointing first season at Maranello.
Next season will also feature the first Adrian Newey-designed Aston Martin, Verstappen racing a Red Bull powered by the energy drink company’s own engine in partnership with Ford, and Audi replacing Sauber.
Frenchman Isack Hadjar joins Verstappen at Red Bull after an impressive rookie season with Racing Bulls that included his first podium at the Dutch Grand Prix.
How the 21-year-old measures up, as Verstappen’s fourth teammate since the end of 2024, will be another compelling storyline when the season opens in Australia on March 8.