The issue dominated a weekend on which Verstappen lost further ground to Norris in the championship but will probably reflect on being an overall positive result for him and his team.
Red Bull were expecting to struggle in Singapore – it was the only race they failed to win last year, when they won the title with the most dominant season in history.
But Verstappen ended up qualifying and finishing second to Norris. Although the McLaren driver reduced his points deficit to Verstappen to 52 points with six races to go, the average at which Norris has to eat into the gap per race has gone up slightly, to 8.7 a race.
Norris, whose performance was the most dominant win of the season, said: “I’m doing my best every weekend. I’m trying to get the most points I can every weekend. Includes fastest lap and things like that.
“But if Max keeps finishing second and Red Bull keep doing like they did this weekend, then there’s nothing more I can do. So just focus on myself and focus on us as a team. That’s it.”
Norris admitted he had “paid the price for not doing a good enough job at times” this season in races in which he felt he had made mistakes that had prevented him from securing a better result.
And he referenced another of the controversies of the Singapore weekend. That was over a rear wing McLaren had used in Baku but have decided to modify before its next intended use in Las Vegas in November, following complaints from Red Bull about how it was flexing and conversations with the FIA.
Norris said: “I still have a lot of points I’ve got to catch up and it’s not going to be easy to do it. It’s against Red Bull and it’s against Max, the most dominant pairing you’ve ever seen in Formula 1, from last year.
“It’s the same team and it’s the same driver. So I have some of the toughest competition that Formula 1 has ever seen in the sport. We are doing a better job as a team right now because my car and our car is quicker than theirs.
“But that’s just credit to the team doing an amazing job and being smarter and doing cooler things and creating mini-DRS flaps and stuff, you know.
“So it’s just because that’s the game and that’s the people we’re up against, the people who also do it and people who create these things.
“I’m working my heart out, I’m working my butt off, to try and make sure that happens. He’s trying to make sure it doesn’t happen. So we’ll have to wait and find out.”
Verstappen was helped by a difficult weekend for Ferrari. Their driver Charles Leclerc appeared to have had the pace to qualify ahead of Verstappen, but he made a mistake on his one qualifying lap and started ninth.
Leclerc recovered to fifth place with a drive which showed strong pace when he was running alone in the second stint.
And McLaren felt that Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri, who finished third after starting fifth following a mistake on his qualifying lap, could also have demoted the Dutchman.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said: “From a numerical point of view, it’s a little frustrating because I think we could have gone away from Singapore having gained more points on Max.
“Ferrari could have finished ahead of Max. Even Oscar, polishing a little bit the qualifying laps, he could have finished ahead of Max.
“But the positives that come from the pace of the car definitely overcome this kind of frustration when you have this sort of pace.
“We are heading on to the next six events, three of which are sprint events. It is definitely not in our hands. It is still in Max’s hands. Likewise, the constructors’ is more in our hands.
“But we go away potentially encouraged and even optimistic that the drivers’ championship is possible because of the performance of the car.
“We need to recognise that if we maximise the potential of the car, finishing with two cars ahead of Max, it’s possible, and that’s what makes us optimistic.”
