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

Before this year he had claimed eight second-place finishes and regularly showed his ability as a driver capable of challenging at the top of the field.

Prior to this season, McLaren had won just one race since 2012 – when Daniel Ricciardo won at Monza in 2021 – but this year they won five grands prix with Oscar Piastri also winning 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 close to a perfect job,” he told Sky F1.

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

“The first half we were suddenly like ‘oh we are fighting them [Red Bull]’. I don’t think I or us as a team were mentally ready for fighting against the big boys and execute perfectly.

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