Red Bull Racing, the reigning Formula One champions, have so far remained unbeaten this year. Their lead driver, Max Verstappen, is riding on a 10-game record winning streak. While his Mexican teammate, Sergio Perez, has had his struggles, he is slowly falling back on the winning bandwagon.
Having said that, this year’s Singapore Grand Prix could be a challenge for a lot of teams. Earlier, FIA said that many teams are taking advantage of the loopholes of two technical directives. Thus, the governing body is likely to keep a close eye on this race weekend to pick up the violators. However, it seems Red Bull, who remained spotless the whole season, is taking a cautious approach.
Max Verstappen Worried About Red Bull’s Pace At Singapore GP
Red Bull Racing has set no foot wrong this season. They seem to be adhering to every regulation and still emerged on the top. But the upcoming Singapore race weekend is likely to pose a challenge to the drink-based outfit. On Friday, during the practice sessions, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were visibly struggling. The RB19’s balance was all over the place. While in FP1, the team recorded a 10th deficit, it came down to seven-tenths in FP2. Still, the pace wasn’t good enough to catch up with the Ferraris, who aced the practice sessions. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz topped the charts, whereas Max Verstappen settled for P3. It’s the first time this season the Dutchman feels his back against the wall.
Naturally, Max Verstappen, who has been accustomed to storied success for the past three years, is not handling the setback too well. During the post-session interview, the Dutch driver admitted to trying to improve pace. But the gap to Ferraris was too wide as he failed to chase them down. “Ferrari is very fast. I believe we’re just way worse than we expected,” added Verstappen. Well, Ferrari made extraordinary progress in Monza a couple of weeks ago. Carlos Sainz clinched the pole and kept the championship leader at bay for 21 laps. Not only that, the Reds missed out on a double podium finish by a whisker. Hence, Red Bull needs to stay very careful this week. Their 100% winning record could be under serious threat this weekend.
F1 Pundit Disregards Red Bull Racing’s FP1 Struggles At Singapore
While Max Verstappen sounded off an alarm to Red Bull after an underwhelming practice session in Singapore, F1 pundit Danica Patrick refuses to believe the assessment. She says she does not tend to believe when a team says they are facing troubles because, many times, they end up in the complete opposite direction. The pundit feels Verstappen is engaged in a mind game to deceive Ferrari into thinking they have the upper hand.
“So yeah, not really counting them out,” added Patrick. After all, it’s only Friday, and nothing is certain until the qualifying session kicks off. Nevertheless, Red Bull and Max Verstappen, of course, will start as favorites this weekend. While the Dutch driver is expected to extend his winning streak, Ferrari would also not count themselves out after Monza’s heroics. Thus, Verstappen needs to watch his mirrors this week, as it won’t be a smooth ride home at all.
