Lando Norris admits guilty feeling after ignoring McLaren instruction during F1 title win | F1 | Sport

After the chequered flag, he was congratulated by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown and his race engineer on the radio. As the emotional Brit took in his new reality, he was told: “Hate to be a little bit boring, no burnouts,” by Joseph.” Norris replied: “Sure,” before taking to the start-finish straight to celebrate with some donuts for the fans.

Looking back at his cheeky snub, Norris said: “Will told me not to do donuts. And I’m like, ‘God, can I do donuts or not? I have to. This is one opportunity in my life to do donuts. I have to do it.’ I felt pretty bad ‘cause he told me not to. And I was like, it’s not often I don’t listen to Will. I felt bad that I did it, but yeah.”

Norris’ post-race rule break was the only instance of papaya rules being flouted in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Team-mate Oscar Piastri executed a planned move at Turn Nine on the opening lap to put pressure on Verstappen ahead, and the Brit did everything he needed to do, keeping his MCL39 out of trouble before crossing the line in third.

F1’s new world champion had no shortage of kind words for his team-mate, and even confessed that he wanted Piastri to take his eighth Grand Prix victory of the year in the season finale, which would have put him ahead of Verstappen in the standings.

“I wanted Oscar to win today,” Norris said after wrapping up the World Championship. “That would have made me even happier, seeing Oscar on the top step, because he would have got his job done of trying to finish second [in the championship], and I would have also got my job done through that. So it’s a shame that couldn’t be the case, and honestly, I was really hoping that was going to be the case.”

While Norris drew first blood in the intra-team fight at McLaren, the 26-year-old expects the coming years to be a different story. “I feel like I’m a better driver now, certainly, than I was at the beginning of the season,” he said. “When I’m racing against Max, a four-time world champion, when I’m racing against Oscar, a guy who at some point in the future will probably beat me and be a world champion, I’m performing.”