Singapore GP one year later
Max Verstappen returns to the scene of the crime, that is, to the only track where Red Bull had struggled last season. A year has passed and it seems like a geological era insteadbecause now the Dutch champion finds himself forced to defend himself from the assaults of rivals McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes in the same week in which his team ended its historic winning streak at the top of the constructors’ standings. The morale, therefore, could not be more different to that of the Singapore GP 12 months ago, when the defeat at the hands of Carlos Sainz was dismissed as a simple incident in a triumphant and probably unrepeatable season. Also because the reality of the facts is that there could not be a more difficult track than the Marina Bay street circuit to try to reverse the trend and return to a success that has now been missing for 7 races.
Red Bull Difficulty at Marina Bay
“In general our car – explained Verstappen in the drivers’ press conference on Thursday – It doesn’t work very well on kerbs and bumpy surfaces, and those are the main characteristics of the Singapore track. So we’ll have to try to stabilise the set-up somehow. I don’t even know where to startbut I am confident that we can do a better job than last year, even if the competition is much tighter now. I think I can set my sights on Q3 in qualifying. McLaren? Piastri is certainly doing a great job lately and in general they are very strong as a team. It will be up to us to be able to cause them problems, but we need to find more confidence in driving the car”.
Swear words banned by the FIA
There was also a comment on the FIA decision to put a stop to the swearing expressed by the drivers during the races: “Both in our sport and in life in general, it seems to me that people are now a little more sensitive to certain things. That’s how it goes, the world is changing but I think it would be enough to simply stop broadcasting team radioor give people the option of not hearing certain things. Of course there are apps now that allow you to listen to all the team radios, but you could find some limits or impose a minimum delay so you can censor the swear words. I think this is the best solution, rather than imposing bans on the drivers. For example, the word ‘f*ck’ itself is not even that much of an insult… I could say that the car in Baku didn’t work because we ‘f*cked’ something”.
Verstappen and team radio
“Sorry for the language – continued Verstappen, a little less buttoned up at a later stage – but, come on! What are we, five or six years old? Even kids that age who are watching TV will probably still sweareven if their parents don’t agree or don’t allow it. When they grow up, they’ll go out with their friends and swear regardless. Everyone swears, some more than others but it depends on the type of language you use. Obviously online abuse is a whole other thing.”
“There are a lot of things broadcast live during sports these days, but no athlete walks around with a microphone on them all the time. It’s normal to use bad language when you’re on adrenaline, but in other disciplines it just doesn’t get picked up by microphones. So I really think we could start by not broadcasting team radio, because if we don’t broadcast them then no one will know that they contain bad words.”.
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