Although the Woking-based team had come off second best to Max Verstappen in the Brazil sprint race, it felt that it had a much better chance in the main grand prix.
And following Norris' brilliant start in the original getaway on used softs, as he jumped from sixth on the grid to second by the first corner, McLaren says its mindset totally changed when the red flag came out as the result of the first corner crash involving Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon.
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Rather than playing it safe at the restart, and sticking to the used softs it had for the original start as Verstappen did, it went for a completely new set as it felt it could give it a sniff of the win if Norris could surge into the lead when the lights went out.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained that the squad felt the tyre offset was worth a gamble as it could just be enough to overcome what it felt was a small deficit to the Red Bull.
"I think certainly in terms of our approach, especially after the red flag, we wanted to win it," explained Stella when asked by Autosport if it felt it had a chance of beating Verstappen at Interlagos.
"At the start, we put our best set of softs on, so we decided to start on a new set, so we could try and take the lead. And from there, [perhaps] put Verstappen in an unusual position and see what we could do. Maybe we could just cover anytime he pits and so on."
Source: Autosport