F1 | Verstappen alarm: “Difficult situation, we have no grip”

On the eve of the weekend, Red Bull had made no secret of the fact that Singapore could be a very complicated GP for the RB20. For now, the track seems to confirm those feelings, not so much for the sole and pure result of the free practice sessions, which in FP2 saw Sergio Perez close in eighth position and Max Verstappen even fifteenth, but also for the feeling found by the drivers.

Concepts expressed in a synthetic but also very direct way by Max Verstappen after the conclusion of the second session on Friday, where he was unable to find good grip with the car. In fact, there is no specific section where the Dutchman accumulated the second and three tenths of a gap from the top, but rather it is a gap that grows steadily throughout the entire lap, especially between the second and third sectors.

It is easy to assume that, beyond the understeer found by the three-time world champion during the session, the further the lap goes, the more the tyres tend to overheat, with a progressive further drop in grip until the end of the lap. The half a second from his teammate also weighs, even if a good part of the gap comes from the last corners, a sign that there is something to improve.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect, as explained by Verstappen, is that at the moment the RB20 does not seem to suffer excessively from bumps and kerbs, on which there has been significant work behind the scenes to try to understand how to solve this problem that Red Bull has been carrying on for some time. The general lack of grip would weigh heavily: however, it is important to understand how much the Milton Keynes team had to make compromises on a mechanical and aerodynamic level to adapt the car to an extremely bumpy asphalt like that of Marina Bay, perhaps losing performance and grip in general.

“It was a difficult day, we don’t have the grip we would like to have,” Verstappen said at the end of the day, underlining how grip is what is lacking at the moment, on any compound.

“A smaller issue than expected, to be honest I didn’t struggle too much on the bumps and kerbs, but we are lacking grip in general. We need to understand how we can improve,” added the Dutchman.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

Overall, there is also a big problem of balance, especially on the pit side of the three-time world champion, which is worrying inside the Red Bull box. The idea expressed by Helmut Marko is that now, perhaps, Red Bull could try something drastic to try to gain some positions and get back into the points zone steadily, also because the feeling is that it is a car rather at the limit to drive, both on a single lap and over the long distance.

Also, unlike other tracks, here the engine mappings, on which Red Bull is usually very conservative on Friday, have less of an impact, given that there are no very long straights on which to make the difference. Every extra horsepower that can be pulled on Saturday will certainly help, but it will not be the key that will make Red Bull advance.