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Lando Norris’ McLaren bonus for winning the 2025 F1 title revealed after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Originally posted on HITC | By Shay Rogers | Last updated Dec 11, 2025 3:00 AM ET

Lando Norris recently became just the 35th man on the planet to have won a Formula 1 drivers’ championship.

He clinched his maiden crown by the slender margin of just two points over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, whose incredible comeback fell agonisingly short.

It means that McLaren have claimed two significant trophies in a season for the first time since 1998, some 27 years ago.

It’s a testament to Norris, who had to stay mentally resilient during a tough campaign, where he struggled for form early on and suffered some bad luck.

Andrea Stella ‘forced’ Norris to ask for help in 2025, which might have ended up making quite a big difference to his efforts.

He kept his cool as teammate Oscar Piastri dropped the ball a little over the last few races. He delivered the performance of a champion under pressure.

Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images

Lando Norris has earned a £4.3 million bonus for winning the 2025 F1 title

Norris made behind-the-scenes changes to beat Piastri, and they worked quite handsomely. At one stage, he trailed him by 34 points around the summer break.

But while the Aussie struggled to find the podium weekend after weekend, Norris was always there, lifting trophies and eventually taking the lead of the championship.

The pressure is now released from the Briton a little heading into 2026, as he knows that he took the only opportunity he might ever get to win a Formula 1 title.

As a result, he receives a handsome bonus from McLaren, which, according to BILD, tallies around £4.3 million.

No doubt the rest of his team will receive a bonus for their part in the success, too, which makes the Woking base a pretty happy place to be ahead of Christmas this year.

Attention must turn to 2026 fairly quickly, but they are allowed to celebrate the feats of a very tough battle in 2025 now.

Photo by Mark Sutton – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images

Why McLaren should be title contenders again in 2026

McLaren’s state-of-the-art infrastructure should have set them up well to compete over the next few years.

They will have been preparing for 2026 for some time. It’s why they went on an aggressive hiring spree a few years ago.

Clearly, that move paid off with two championships this year and one in 2024. But for 2026, they should be in a very solid position still.

They get the Mercedes power unit, which always seems to start new regulation cycles well, and they have one of the best, if not the best, driver line-up on the grid. They’re in safe hands.

This article first appeared on HITC and was syndicated with permission.

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