Norris had been running second behind Oscar Piastri in Zandvoort when he suddenly slowed and pulled off track on Lap 65, moments after reporting smoke in the cockpit.
The retirement was a cruel blow to his championship hopes, as Piastri went on to win and extend his lead to 34 points with nine rounds remaining.
McLaren’s post-race analysis found the component failure triggered an oil leak, with sensors shutting the engine down to prevent further damage.
The team has already implemented a reinforced version of the part for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
“There are a lot of insanely complicated things that have to come together,” Norris said of the failure.
“For them, the diagnostic of what happened is pretty easy. It’s a part that’s broken and they look at it and go, it’s broken.
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“But the understanding of how to fix it, they make the same part but stronger. Racing in F1 is always about making things lighter and stronger.”
The incident marked McLaren’s first mechanical DNF since Bahrain 2023, when both Norris and Piastri suffered reliability issues.
For Norris, the consolation is that the Zandvoort power unit may yet be salvageable, with Mercedes evaluating whether it can be returned to the engine pool later in the season.
Despite the setback, Norris insists his approach to the championship fight will not change.
“I’ve forgotten about it already,” he said in Monza.
“I couldn’t care less about last weekend now. It’s behind and I have to try and make up for some points, but it doesn’t change.
“Even if I was three points behind, 10 points, 100 points, my target is to win this weekend.”
The Briton remains adamant that he does not need to be more aggressive in his battle with Piastri.
“I don’t need to change anything. Every weekend I’m trying to win, and I don’t need to change that,” he explained.
“Whether it’s Oscar for me or me for Oscar, he’s still my teammate at the end of the day and we still have to respect each other a lot.
“I think we always race each other well and on the limit, and that’s how I’ll continue to be.”
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