Norris made his Formula 1 debut in 2019, meaning he had to wait five years to score his first race victory.

Before this year, he had won eight second places and regularly showed his abilities as a driver capable of fighting at the front of the field.

Before this season, McLaren had only won one race since 2012 – when Daniel Ricciardo won at Monza in 2021 – but this year they have won five grands prix and Oscar Piastri has also won twice.

Norris believes he and the team have grown as the season has gone on.

“I feel like since Zandvoort (the Dutch Grand Prix in August) I’ve done an almost perfect job,” he told Sky F1.

“There are things I need to improve on as always, but I feel like I did a good job, especially in the second half of the season.

“In the first half we suddenly said ‘oh, we’re fighting them (Red Bull).’ I don’t think me or us as a team were mentally ready to fight against the big guys and execute perfectly .

“As much as we would like to believe we were ready, we weren’t and we paid a bit of a price for that.”