How advice from former F1 and MotoGP champions helped Lando Norris

Lando Norris says advice from F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel and MotoGP champion Casey Stoner helped him achieve his dream.

Norris emerged victorious from a three-way title showdown to clinch his maiden world championship with a third-place finish in a tense season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The 26-year-old Briton beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by two points and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri by 13 at the end of a pulsating 24-round campaign.

Norris has revealed that four-time F1 world champion Vettel, and two-time MotoGP champion Stoner reached out to give him crucial words of wisdom.

"I've had some great words and great text messages and conversations with some incredible people, people that have won World Championships in different sports, Lewis and others like Seb. A lot of people don't know I speak to Seb about things,” Norris told F1.com.

"A lot of these people, [former MotoGP champion Casey] Stoner, who, when I needed it most, sent me that little text message and said 'think of this, believe in yourself, do this, do that', and just help me along.

"When you win the championship by two points, I would certainly say having these moments of faith from others around me got me those two points. And therefore, that's why I've got to thank everyone around me because two points is also what you need.”

Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton also offered Norris advice ahead of the title showdown.

Norris ‘had to do a better job’ than ever before

Norris impressively recovered from a retirement at the Dutch Grand Prix that threatened to derail his F1 title bid.

The devastating DNF at Zandvoort left Norris 34 points adrift of Piastri with nine races remaining, but a brilliant run of form swung the title race back in his favour.

"I certainly thought my life was extremely difficult, and it was from that point onward," Norris said of what happened in the Netherlands.

“I had to do a better job than I've ever done before. I had to start winning a lot of races. I had to consistently beat my team mate. I had to consistently beat everyone.

"At that point, it felt like a lot. At that point, I could barely beat him on one weekend.

"Whether that was on the simulator, here on the track, with my engineers, spending time with them, understanding the difficulties, just going into more depth than ever before, trying to be more efficient, bringing in more people from around, wherever it is, to help me understand myself, help me understand how I can get more out of myself, how I can get more out of the people around me, how we can all work together better as a team.

"All of these little things, a lot of little things that no one else gets to see, no one even knows about, apart from me and my team. My team around me that pushes so much to achieve something like today.

"It's not something I even need other people to know about or care about, but it's something that I know, like so much effort, so much time, so much work, from my group went into, how can we make Lando a better person, a better driver, how can we get him to win the championship from being 34 points behind?

"All of that work paid off and that's what made me so happy at that time, was like, damn, I'm actually doing it, I'm doing what I needed to do. Because one thing is just thinking it or believing it, the next thing is actually going out and doing it. That was my job and I wouldn't have been able to do that without the people around me.”