Lando Norris said Charles Leclerc‘s miracle recovery in Formula 1’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix made McLaren more nervous as it battled the Scuderia for the constructors’ championship.
McLaren looked perfectly poised to defend its 21-point gap to Ferrari with both Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri leading Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz off the front row, while the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc started at the rear of the field with a grid penalty after being eliminated in Q2.
But the papaya team’s title bid came under much more pressure once Piastri was spun around by Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen in the first corner, while Leclerc made a perfect getaway and dodged sparring midfielders to gain 11 places in one lap.
Leclerc continued his strong recovery drive to claim third behind Sainz as the pair clinched a double podium on their last weekend as Ferrari team-mates, but Norris took a relatively comfortable victory that sealed McLaren’s first constructors’ title since 1998.
Norris admitted that once he saw Leclerc immediately jump to eighth on the big screens around the Yas Marina circuit, and Piastri had been knocked out of contention at the front, there was some nervousness about McLaren being much more exposed.
“I was watching the TV screens and I saw Charles was P8 after lap one, so I was a little bit nervous!” Norris grinned. “But I knew I just had to focus on myself, put my head down.
“Carlos was never far away. I think the biggest I got the gap to was, like, 4.2 seconds in the first stint, and that’s not a very nice gap in my opinion. It’s a bit too close to my comfort.
“So, it was still a tricky race, and I’m sure there was probably a lot more nervous people on the pitwall and in the garage, knowing what was at stake. I’ve got the adrenaline of the car and focused on that. For them, they’re just sitting and watching the screens, and they have a lot more time to think about what can go wrong and all of that.”
“Oscar was super unlucky, he got taken out in Turn 1. So for a minute, my heart was like, ‘oh God, it’s not looking as likely’. But if I just kept my head down and kept focused, I knew I could deliver and do what I got to do.”
Charles Leclerc, Scuderia Ferrari, 3rd position, congratulates Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 1st position, in Parc Ferme
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
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