Red Bull are back as team slashes its lap time deficit in Singapore

Red Bull arrived in Singapore following their worst run of form in years.

On average, they were 0.46% off the pace over the previous three races. This from the team which began the season with seven consecutive pole positions.

More worryingly for them, Singapore had been their sole weak track for their all-conquering RB19 last year. But if they could show a better turn of pace at Marina Bay, it would surely bode well for the rest of the season.

A week ago in Baku, Red Bull claimed they’d made some improvements to their car’s handling on Friday, before set-up changes on Max Verstappen moved it out of its comfort zone, consigning him to a fifth-place finish.

In Singapore, the team look very much their old selves. Verstappen didn’t look comfortable at any time during practice, but in qualifying the car came to life. On top of which, in a challenging Q3 where most drivers only got a single flying lap in, he got closer to his potential than several of his rivals, and his reward was a better qualifying position than his car arguably deserved.

Sector times

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Underpinning all this was a significant improvement by Red Bull at their bogey track of 2023. Neither of their cars reached Q3 last year, but today Verstappen grabbed a place on the front row by lapping almost two-and-a-half seconds faster than he managed 12 months ago – the greatest improvement of any team.

McLaren, however, remain a formidable adversary across a range of tracks. At this race last year the team introduced its second significant upgrade of the season. But it has continued to develop its car strongly since then, and aside from Red Bull only Williams have wrung more from their car at this track in the intervening period.

They will be ruing their failure to lock out the front row of the grid, however. Oscar Piastri clearly had the pace to do so, but will line up three places lower than his car was capable of, despite being one of only two drivers to complete a pair of flying laps in Q3.

Mercedes capitalised superbly on their rival’s struggles. On paper the W15s should be on the fourth row, not the second.

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This is the second event to be held on the shortened version of the Marina Bay circuit which bypasses the harbour front section of the track. Lap times are now 16 seconds faster than they were when F1 first raced on this track 16 years ago, when it featured four extra corners and the clumsy ‘Singapore sling’ chicane. Norris’ pole position time of 1’29.525 is a new record for the course.

For the fourth race in a row, however, Sauber were furthest from the mark. Aside from their C44s lapping 2.29% off the pace the rest of the field is closer than it’s been all year, 1.39% covering the quickest team to the second-slowest. But keep a sense of perspective: 2.29% off pole position was good enough for 10th on the grid at that inaugural Singapore race.

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