Lando Norris’ parents have been sharing their emotions after their son claimed his debut World Championship in Abu Dhabi, with the victory coming as a “relief” following an eventful season and a “long journey” to this point.
After taking third place in Sunday’s season finale – a result that was enough to seal the title for Norris with a margin of two points from race winner Max Verstappen – the Briton was seen emotionally celebrating his achievement with his loved ones, including dad Adam Norris and mum Cisca Wauman.
Having watched their son climb the motorsport ranks before reaching F1 with McLaren in 2019, Adam Norris reflected on the pathway to the 26-year-old’s success when chatting to F1 TV after the event at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Asked to sum up his emotions, Norris senior said: “Relief, probably. It’s been a long time and a difficult season, and in the middle when we dipped below.
“But it’s a long journey, it’s a difficult journey. There’s a lot of pain involved in getting there – painful days and long days and sacrifices, and now we’re there. Champion of the world, it’s cool.”
While finishing in the top three was enough to guarantee Norris the title, that result did not always look certain at stages of the Grand Prix, with Norris having to overtake cars following his pit stop which included a close battle with Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda.
When quizzed on how his heart rate was as he watched on through all of that, Adam Norris smiled: “It was actually really good. For the first time all year, I locked myself in a room, I watched it without commentary, and I just sat there with the headphones on and very quietly watched the whole thing.
“The commentary gets you excited, so when I’m at home I get really excited! My heart rate’s going through the roof, so my thing was, ‘Can I listen to some classical music?’. And you know, if he’d had a puncture he wouldn’t have got there.”
The elder Norris paid tribute to the “good team” around his son, before conceding that the achievement might take some time to sink in.
“I think it will do,” he admitted. “But I love the journey, and I really loved those places you go to that no tourist would go to. You go to remote little tracks, and I love the journey – I really enjoyed every part of that journey, but it was hard, really difficult.
“Some of the other parents packed up because they didn’t want to do that, but I was there and the team was there the whole way through to keep going.”
And when asked what he said to Lando as they embraced following his triumph, Norris senior said: “I can’t swear, but just ‘champion of the world’. You can never take it away – if someone’s won that, you can never take it away. It’s a big day.”
It was also a momentous occasion for Norris’ mum, Cisca Wauman, who summed up her feelings to Sky Sports F1 as: “Emotionally drained, but very happy. Very happy for the family, for the team, McLaren, the fans, because they’ve been always there.”
Wauman echoed Adam Norris’ comments about the journey up until this moment, explaining that there have been “a lot of sacrifices” along the way.
“When Lando was seven, he started karting; by the time he was eight he was competing together with his brother Ollie, and it took the two boys one direction and the two girls I have the other direction,” she reflected.
“So I missed Lando and Ollie, seeing them growing up as kids. Suddenly playing with a tractor naked in the garden was done, and I missed that! But this is amazing, this is fantastic.”
As the race moved closer to its finish, Wauman spoke of the tension that she felt, adding: “Those last laps, they took ages! You never know [what can happen], until the race is done.
“They were calling us down because me and Adam were sitting in a room separately, and they were calling us down with 10 laps to go – the race is not over, how can they call us down getting ready for this! But here we are.”
