A major upgrade package introduced over the past two races helped Norris produce a star performance on home ground at Silverstone last weekend.
The young Briton qualified on the front row and briefly led the opening stages before coming home in second place behind race winner Max Verstappen and ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
The scale of McLaren’s progress has left rivals hoping they too can follow suit and deliver a similar leap forward in performance with in-season car developments.
But Norris has urged caution about reading too much into the Silverstone performance, and even the fact that the McLaren seemed to be much better in race trim than it has been earlier in the campaign.
For although the improved tyre management on display at the British GP hinted at genuine progress, he said that the MCL-60 was still far behind rivals in critical areas.
Asked by Motorsport.com about the improved tyre management on display at Silverstone, Norris said: “It's definitely not been present in the car all season and Bahrain was quite the opposite.
“These tracks allow us to look after the tyres well. We're very, very competitive in high speed and we're almost on par with what Red Bull could achieve. And actually, I would say, towards the medium speed like Turn 15 here, Stowe, I would say we're close to being the best car on the grid.
Source: Autosport