Lando Norris finally lifts F1 trophy, crowned champion at FIA gala

Lando Norris has officially been crowned the 2025 F1 world champion at the FIA’s prize-giving gala.

The McLaren driver was presented with the drivers’ world championship trophy for the first time in his F1 career at the FIA’s awards ceremony on Friday evening in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.

Norris collected his trophy from FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who has been re-elected for a second four-year term.

The 26-year-old Briton clinched his maiden world championship by finishing third at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last Sunday.

Norris pipped Max Verstappen to the title by two points to end the Red Bull driver’s four-year reign at the top of F1, and become the first McLaren driver to win the championship since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

Norris’s McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished third in the world championship, 13 points shy of winning his maiden world title, was also in attendance.

Verstappen missed the event due to illness.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown collected the Woking squad’s second consecutive constructors’ championship trophy.

Why did Norris have to wait for trophy?

Norris was not able to get his hands on the trophy immediately after winning the championship in Abu Dhabi.

A replica of the trophy, which was created in 1995, was on the grid ahead of the season finale, but the real thing was flown to Uzbekistan.

F1’s governing body the FIA award the trophy, which is made up of silver and gold and has each champion’s signature engraved on the outside, alongside their name and winning year, during their annual awards gala.

Trophies are presented some time after the final race of the season because the FIA’s International Sporting Code allows competitors to ask for a right of review.

The FIA’s awards ceremony is the traditional end to the motorsport season.