OPINION: McLaren must provide Norris with a title-challenging car or risk losing him
Norris' stunning and by his own admission "surprising" pole position for last weekend's sprint race in Sao Paulo was a statement of intent. It had been a long time coming for the young British driver whose season has kept improving.
However, when it came to race pace, Max Verstappen's Red Bull was still superior and Norris couldn't hold the Dutch driver off on the first corner or get close enough at any other point to catch him. That is where McLaren must work tirelessly in the off-season - to provide a car that can go toe-to-toe with Red Bull.
Norris, for his part, has already demonstrated his talent and bravery on a racing track time and time again since joining Formula 1 in 2019.
This year has been his most impressive to date.
A recent example comes from just a fortnight ago when he came from 17th on the grid to claim fifth place in Mexico. Sky Sports questioned if it was his best-ever F1 drive to date and it's hard to argue against that, it was a stunning drive which included some breathtaking overtakes and overcoming of adversity.
There is no doubt about it, Lando Norris is in the form of his career and with the majority of his time in the sport still ahead of him, F1 has a future multiple-time world champion waiting in its wings.
It is now down to Mclaren to provide Norris with a car capable of competing not only with Ferrari and Mercedes (who you expect will be more competitive next year) but with Red Bull and Verstappen. Red Bull have won the constructors championship two years in a row and Verstappen has won the drivers championship three in a row now.
That is the challenge facing McLaren team principal Andrea Stella and his team in Woking as they build a car ready to challenge in 2024.
What happens if McLaren fail to finally deliver?
If pre-season testing comes around and McLaren still appear no closer to the pace of Red Bull, then it can be deemed as a failure. The team cannot hide behind the excuse of this being a project and it taking time to build a title-challenging car forever.
At some point, the project that has been years in the making has to be realised. Because this will be Norris' sixth year in Formula 1 and he has probably been ready to compete for the last two years at least.
He is already three titles behind someone who, talent-wise, he is not far off (if at all). Norris won't want to look back in 15 years' time and think through loyalty to McLaren he missed out on winning as many World Titles as Lewis Hamilton or Verstappen.
If McLaren fail to deliver next year, Norris should seriously consider his future. And if there is a seed of doubt in Norris' mind, then Mercedes boss Toto Wolf should be sewing that seed even deeper by outlining an alternative option for him.
A future could lie alongside his friend George Russell at Mercedes, competing for titles year after year, against one another and their rivals at Red Bull.
Hamilton is the greatest of all time and is still at the top of his game. Surely his time is nearly up, though, and when that day comes around, Mercedes will have one very attractive vacancy to fill.
Succeeding a great comes with pressures but who better than Norris to own that pressure and live up to expectations?
