Red Bull feared Singapore and the Milton Keynes team saw the ghosts materialize at Marina Bay. The RB19, the unbeatable single-seater in the first fourteen races of the world championship, on the city streets of Marina Bay, was a difficult car to drive, complicated to set up.
Max Verstappen remained out of Q3: it hadn’t happened since the 2019 Canadian GP without technical problems, and the two Red Bulls both out of the Top 10 need to go back to the 2018 Russian GP. It’s clear that something didn’t work on the RB19s and it’s unlikely he will be put in place for tomorrow’s race.
The world champion laughs sardonically, taking note of the situation, but does not make any arguments: “I knew it would be tough to fight for pole, but I didn’t expect a result like this. If we add to this that we had many difficulties throughout the weekend, I’m not too surprised – admits Max – at the end of FP3 we weren’t in such a bad situation, but then we tried to make some changes to the car for qualifying, changing the setup of the car which they made it undriveable again. The car scraped the asphalt when braking, so the front wheels lost grip.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, has a worried look: the RB19 doesn’t work in Singapore
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Handling has always been a strength of Red Bull this season…
“As I said on the radio, it was a shocking experience because I had to drive a car that had no grip even at low speed: we were without speed, without traction. So it’s really difficult to drive.”
In Saudi Arabia you made a good comeback from 15th place…
“That won’t be the case here – continues Verstappen – we find ourselves in a difficult condition, because tire degradation won’t be important. Tomorrow will be a long and difficult afternoon.”
In addition to having to deal with a Red Bull that doesn’t work, Max is under investigation for three impidings: in addition to the “collective” one at the end of Q2, the orange driver could be penalized by the board of sports commissioners for having blocked the drivers at exiting the pit lights after Stroll’s crash and due to the obvious impediment to Yuki Tsunoda…
“I wanted to gain some space on the cars that were already on the track and I waited a bit – closes Verstappen – because I had to try to warm up the tires that weren’t up to temperature. I’ll go talk to the stewards. But in such a complicated weekend, starting 11th, 15th or last will make little difference. We need to understand why we did so badly all weekend to see how we can bring home a couple of points…”.
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