Mercedes driver George Russell and world champion Max Verstappen both believe McLaren start the year with a pace advantage based on the evidence of pre-season testing.
Asked if he thought that McLaren were favourites going into the Australian Grand Prix this weekend, Norris said: “I feel like we are now. I know there’s a lot of expectation and it’s what everyone says.
“I’m quite surprised so many people are so short-sighted, especially people you wouldn’t expect to be, making so many conclusions before you even start the season.
“Everyone just wants to play that game of looking like the underdog and playing it down.”
Norris said that McLaren’s status as favourites was the consequence of one race-distance run he did on the second day of testing last month but insisted that the top four teams would be closely matched, as they were last year.
“I feel like we’re in a similar playing field to the top other three teams,” Norris said in Melbourne on Thursday. “I still think it’s us top four but there are many things that other people didn’t see (in testing) where other people have been extremely strong, including Red Bull, including Mercedes, including Ferrari.
“I know how much fuel and stuff Ferrari had for a lot of the testing and you’d be surprised at how quick they’re going to be this weekend.
“People can talk what they want. We’ve kept to ourselves, we’ve kept focused and we want to be quick. We expect to be up there fighting but I don’t think you can think by the margin that everyone’s saying.”