Verstappen struggles sound Red Bull alarm bells – data analysis
Red Bull does not have positive recent memories of the Singapore Grand Prix, with it having been the one race last season it failed to win.
12 months ago, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez finished in fifth and eighth, respectively. The RB19 did not gel with the Marina Bay Circuit, neither is the RB20.
Verstappen enjoyed a reasonable first practice, before alarm bells started to ring in the representative second practice.
Second practice in Singapore is the only practice session of the weekend which takes place at a similar time of day as qualifying and the race, making it the most important practice session of the event.
The reigning world champion completed two qualifying runs on Pirelli’s soft tyre for Singapore, with his quickest time having been an astounding 1.3 seconds slower than pacesetter Lando Norris.
Verstappen set a 1:32.0, whilst Norris set a strong 1:30.7. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was just 0.058s adrift of the McLaren driver.
In second practice, Norris gained time on Verstappen across the entire lap. Norris was three tenths quicker than Verstappen in both the first and second sectors, whilst more than half a second was found in the third.
A lot of this time lost was put down by the Red Bull driver to a severe lap of grip.
“We did not have the desired grip,” Verstappen said. “The bumps and kerbstones were a smaller problem to be honest.
“I had more trouble with the grip in general, so there are a few things to look at for improvement.”
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Long run concerns
Not only did the qualifying run not look good for Verstappen, so did the long runs. Verstappen drove his long run in the second practice session on the hard tyres, Leclerc did so on the medium compound, whilst Norris used the softest available rubber.
The Briton drove roughly the same number of laps as Verstappen and was considerably faster, although that is quite normal especially in the first few laps.
Crucially, Norris was also only two tenths slower than Verstappen after fifteen laps on the soft compound.
It’s also important to note that Norris was suffering from traffic during his long run, meaning his times are not entirely representative. Leclerc was also strong on his medium tyres and was faster than Verstappen.
When Verstappen dipped into the 1:38s, Norris and Leclerc continued to post steady 1:37s, despite the fact their tyres should have worsened in pace quicker than the three-time world champion’s.
As pointed out by Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko, “nothing worked” on Verstappen’s car in second practice.
“Nothing worked on Max’s car,” Marko told Sky Sport DE. “He had no grip on the soft and hard tyres and the balance was not right.
“Right now I would say the situation is very worrying and we have to try something drastically. We are going to see what we can try.
“We have to figure things out to make sure we are more competitive. I just looked and we have the same pace as Franco Colapinto…”
