“You’re World Champion, Lando. We’re proud of you.”  At the chequered flag, the team radio crackles: Lando Norris has just been crowned Drivers’ World Champion. “We’ve made history,” they tell him. The Briton—an kind-hearted guy who is as fast as he is human, a rarity in the unforgiving world of Formula One where fragility is forbidden—breaks down in tears as the team on the pit wall erupts in celebration.

It’s a hard-earned, far-from-guaranteed victory that arrives under the Abu Dhabi lights and rewards the “McLaren system,” a structure that allowed the two papaya drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, to race on equal terms until the very last round. The stakes couldn’t have been higher, and on the eve of the race the team itself hinted that even the noblest rules might be bent depending on how things unfolded. A wise approach—without ever betraying their values.

McLaren didn’t just win. They won their way. And that’s what makes the Team Principal smile. Italian, 54, part of McLaren since 2015 alongside Fernando Alonso and Team Principal since 2022, he is one of the key architects behind the Woking team’s renaissance. Three titles in two years—the Drivers’ crown had been missing since 2008.

How satisfying is it to win in your own way, with both drivers fighting for the World Championship?
“We didn’t win today—we won over a very long journey. Twenty-four races make the championship a marathon, and staying consistent, united, and coherent with our values is as demanding as it is essential. I said it before the race: how do we want to leave our mark? Winning 16 world titles means something, but here at McLaren we also wanted to show that certain values still matter—that you can build a culture based on progress, not regret.
We worked as a team, and as a team we won: the drivers, the engineers, the people at the track, and the incredible technical department in England. Today no single person ‘designs’ the geometry of a car anymore—times have changed.”

It’s a team effort.
“Values are fundamental if you want to build something. There’s a song by Niccolò Fabi that says building means giving up perfection. And that’s what we did—putting the collective interest at the center.
It’s easy to blame each other in tough moments—but we didn’t, not even the drivers. With Zak (Brown, McLaren’s CEO) we’ve built a team that shares the same philosophy: you can win and still respect everyone, inside and outside.”

Norris also won in his own way—a champion who doesn’t hide his vulnerabilities.
“The level in F1 is incredibly high. These guys have telemetry on their go-karts when they’re still kids. This new generation is strong, and Lando beat a four-time world champion. He has grown enormously, as a person and as a driver. You only learn to win by winning. Constant battles with your teammate and with a bulldog like Max (Verstappen) either make you grow fast or crush you.
Lando’s big breakthrough was last year, with crucial duels—like Austria. That was the turning point. It gave him a massive boost of self-confidence; he started believing he could fight Verstappen and beat him. He also learned to focus on himself, blocking out the noise.
We made technical changes, too, to help him center his driving—like disabling the delta that shows gaps with other drivers.”

What about Piastri?
“We know Oscar will be a world champion too. He already came close. His growth has been remarkable. He overcame tough moments—the Vegas disqualification, the Qatar strategy errors… He embraced the McLaren philosophy without blaming the team. He’ll come back even stronger.”