He was 34 points adrift of Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August, with only nine races remaining. That was when the run of form that ultimately took him to the title started.
But while the outside perception was that this had freed Norris up and allowed him to just go for it, he says it was the opposite.
“No, it didn’t allow me to relax,” he said. “Thirty-four points against a guy who had the same car, who was doing an incredible job, who I know is incredibly great, it didn’t fill me with confidence and (make me) think I have nothing to lose now.
“I just had to step up, what I was doing away from the track, the people I was working with. I had to involve people to that group, I had to work harder, I was on a simulator, I had to change my approaches, I had to change my style of driving, I had to dig deep, to unlock more of my ideas.
“I’m trying to understand more things quicker, in a more advanced way than I ever have before.”
Team principal Andrea Stella said: “The level of Formula 1 drivers nowadays is so high, to compete at this level, the only way to stay in the quest is to keep evolving continuously.
“If I look at Lando, definitely there was a lot that was taken away from the quest last year, even if it didn’t go to the last race. I think Lando elevated his sense of, almost his status, like, ‘I can compete with Max.’
“This season there was another important turning point, which is the way Lando, and we talk specifically about him for a moment, responded to the difficulties we had at the start of the season. There was the start of a process which was structured, it was holistic, it was involving the personal development, professional, driving, racecraft.
“It makes me particularly glad that Lando could capitalise on this, because this has been something that not necessarily I’ve seen many times before, in terms of the amount of work, the people involved, and the rate of development.”
For Stella’s boss, McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown, this was a personal achievement as well as a professional one. Brown started backing Norris on a management level when he was 14, supported him through the junior ranks and brought him to McLaren.
“I remember when he was about that big. The management he has around him have done an awesome job bringing him up to be the mature world champion that he now is. And it’s a great accomplishment. It’s very rewarding.”
