In what has become one of the most contentious aftermaths to a Formula 1 season in living memory, the 2025 World Championship celebration for Lando Norris has been abruptly soured by a shocking break in royal tradition and a barrage of criticism from within the paddock. The 26-year-old McLaren driver, who secured Britain’s first title since Lewis Hamilton’s reign, finds himself at the center of a storm not of celebration, but of validation.
The Royal Cold Shoulder
The first blow to Norris’s victory lap came from Buckingham Palace. In a move that has stunned British motorsport fans, Lando Norris was conspicuously omitted from the 2025 New Year’s Honors list. This decision marks a jarring departure from a long-standing unwritten rule: British Formula 1 World Champions are recognized.
History paints a clear picture of this tradition. When Damon Hill silenced the critics in 1996, he was promptly recognized. Lewis Hamilton received his MBE immediately following his dramatic maiden title in 2008, and Jenson Button was similarly honored after his fairy-tale Brawn GP season in 2009. For decades, the pattern was set—bring the trophy home to Britain, and the Crown acknowledges the feat.
Yet, for Norris, the phone has not rung. He has become only the fourth British World Champion in the modern era to be denied this immediate recognition. The silence from the Palace is deafening, and in the absence of an official explanation, the vacuum has been filled with uncomfortable speculation. Is this merely a bureaucratic oversight, an administrative delay to be rectified in the King’s Birthday Honors? Or is it something far more personal—a silent commentary on the quality of the championship itself?
A “Work of Art” or a Missed Opportunity?
The narrative that Norris’s title is somehow “lesser” is being fueled not just by royal indifference, but by vocal figures within the sport. The 2025 season was a thriller, concluding with Norris edging out Max Verstappen by a razor-thin two-point margin. But while the record books show Norris as the victor, the paddock chatter suggests he nearly fumbled the bag.
Raymond Vermeulen, the long-time manager of Max Verstappen, has delivered a brutal assessment of the season that has sent shockwaves through the community. Speaking to Formula 1 Magazine, Vermeulen did not mince his words, branding Verstappen’s runner-up campaign as a “work of art” while casting a long shadow over Norris’s performance.
“This season has been a work of art by Max,” Vermeulen asserted. “He managed to turn the year around. At the beginning, we had a few very bad weekends with the Red Bull Racing team, and those broke us at the end.”
But Vermeulen’s praise for his client quickly turned into a pointed critique of the new champion. “If you turn it around, McLaren made a lot more mistakes with that car. Norris should have become champion much earlier.”
The implication is devastatingly clear: Norris had the machinery to dominate, yet he struggled to close the deal. The McLaren MCL39 was the class of the field, a beast of a car that secured the Constructors’ Championship with ease. In contrast, Verstappen was fighting with one hand tied behind his back in an inferior Red Bull, yet he managed to drag the title fight to the final lap of the final race.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
To understand the weight of Vermeulen’s criticism, one must look at the statistics that defined the second half of the 2025 season. Despite driving the second-best car, Verstappen was relentless. After the summer break, the Dutchman took six Grand Prix victories and never failed to stand on the podium. It was a run of consistency that bordered on the supernatural.
McLaren, meanwhile, stuck to a philosophy of sporting fairness, allowing Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri to race freely. While noble, critics argue this approach hemorrhaged valuable points—points that nearly cost Norris the title. Team orders could have wrapped up the championship months in advance, sparing Norris the nail-biting finale in Abu Dhabi. Instead, the team’s refusal to prioritize their lead driver made the battle far closer than the car’s performance advantage should have allowed.
Verstappen himself had alluded to this during the season’s heat. Ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, he famously remarked, “If we would have been in the position of how dominant of a car McLaren had… the championship would have been over a long time ago.” At the time, Norris dismissed these comments as “nonsense,” attributing them to Red Bull’s aggressive mind games. But looking back at the two-point gap, many are now wondering if Max was simply speaking the truth.
The Ultimate Humiliation: Team Principals Vote
If the royal snub was a blow to Norris’s public image, the release of the annual Team Principals’ Driver Rankings was a blow to his professional ego. Every year, the chiefs of the ten F1 teams—including McLaren’s own Andrea Stella and Mercedes’ Toto Wolff—vote for their top 10 drivers of the season.
The results for 2025 were nothing short of stunning.
Despite wearing the crown, Lando Norris was voted the second best driver of the year. The top spot? It went to the man he beat—Max Verstappen. For the fifth consecutive year, the team bosses named the Dutchman the sport’s premier talent.
Let that sink in. The people who possess the most data, who analyze every telemetry trace, and who understand the nuances of the sport better than anyone else, collectively decided that the runner-up performed better than the champion. It is a rare and humiliating anomaly in sports: to win the ultimate prize but be told by your peers that your rival was actually better.
The list highlighted a changing of the guard, with Oscar Piastri, George Russell, and Fernando Alonso rounding out the top five. Notably absent was Lewis Hamilton, whose move to Ferrari has seemingly been fraught with adaptation struggles, leaving the seven-time champion off the list entirely. But the headline story remained the inversion at the top.
An Asterisk Champion?
Lando Norris now finds himself in a precarious and unique position. He has achieved his lifelong dream. He is a Formula 1 World Champion, a title that can never be taken away. Yet, his reign begins under a cloud of skepticism. He is a champion without the traditional royal honor. He is a victor ranked second-best by his bosses. He is a driver whose achievement is being viewed by some as the minimum requirement for the car he was driving, rather than a transcendent sporting feat.
The irony is palpable. Max Verstappen, in losing his title, has perhaps gained more respect for his “monster” performance in a weaker car than he did during his years of dominance. Norris, in winning, has exposed himself to critiques of inconsistency and missed opportunities.
As the sport looks toward 2026, Norris faces a new challenge. He doesn’t just need to defend his title; he needs to validate it. He needs to prove that 2025 wasn’t a fluke born of machinery, but the arrival of a true great. A successful defense would silence the critics and likely force the Palace’s hand. But for now, Lando Norris remains the King of F1 without a knighthood, the winner who many believe should have won bigger.
The tradition has been broken. The question now is whether Norris can force the world—and the Royal Family—to respect his reign, or if he will forever be remembered as the champion who barely scraped by in the fastest car on the grid.
