Lando Norris had been dreaming of this moment since he was five years old, sitting in front of a television set in Bristol, mesmerized by the speed. Twenty-one years later, under the floodlights of Abu Dhabi, the tears flowed freely inside his helmet. The boy who grew up on a diet of Valentino Rossi highlights had finally etched his own name into the pantheon of motorsport legends.

But as the champagne sprayed and the Papaya Army erupted, a starkly different scene played out further down the paddock. Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time champion who shocked the world by trading the Silver Arrows for the Prancing Horse, sat alone in the Ferrari hospitality unit. His gamble—the most expensive transfer in F1 history—had yielded zero podiums and a season of frustration that left fans in Nairobi and around the globe asking: Was it worth it?

The New King of the Grid

The 2025 season will be remembered as the year the Red Bull dynasty finally crumbled. Norris, driving a McLaren MCL39 that was the class of the field, secured the title in a tense finale, holding off a late-season charge from his own teammate, Oscar Piastri, and a defiant Max Verstappen.

For Kenyan fans watching from packed viewing parties at The Alchemist and K1 Klubhouse, Norris’s victory is more than just a sporting triumph; it is a lesson in patience. McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella noted that the team’s turnaround from the back of the grid in 2023 to champions in 2025 was built on "relentless, quiet execution."

Norris’s financial rewards are equally staggering. His contract, reportedly worth $20 million annually (approx. KES 2.6 billion), places him among the global elite. To put that in perspective, his yearly earnings could fund the construction of several kilometers of the Nairobi Expressway.

• The Stat that Matters: Norris secured 7 race wins in 2025, including an emotional home victory at Silverstone.
• The turning point: The mid-season upgrades at the Spanish Grand Prix that finally broke Red Bull's aerodynamic stranglehold.

Hamilton’s Italian Nightmare

If Norris is the season’s undisputed winner, Lewis Hamilton is its most high-profile casualty. The anticipation for his move to Ferrari was feverish, with merchandise sales in Kenya spiking months before the first race. Yet, the reality has been a "sobering experience," as described by Sky Sports analyst Bernie Collins.

Hamilton finished the season without a single Grand Prix podium—a career first. His best result was a Sprint victory in China, a fleeting moment of joy in a campaign plagued by setup issues and a car that simply refused to cooperate with his driving style. Speaking to the media in Abu Dhabi, a visibly drained Hamilton admitted he was ready to "throw his phone in the bin" and disconnect from the world.

"I don't regret the decision," Hamilton insisted, though his body language suggested otherwise. "I know it takes time to build." But with the 40-year-old finishing a distant sixth in the standings, 74 points behind teammate Charles Leclerc, the clock is ticking louder than ever.

Red Bull’s Identity Crisis

Max Verstappen fought valiantly to defend his crown, finishing as runner-up, but the aura of invincibility is gone. The departure of design genius Adrian Newey and the internal turmoil at Red Bull Racing left the RB21 exposed. The team’s second seat remained a revolving door of chaos, with Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda swapping duties in a desperate bid to find stability.

For the neutral observer, however, this chaos was a gift. The 2025 season delivered the most competitive grid in a decade, with four different teams—McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes—taking race wins. As the paddock packs up for the winter, the question on everyone's lips is no longer if Verstappen can be beaten, but who will stop the McLaren juggernaut in 2026.