16 September 2023 , 11:31
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Max Verstappen swore as he struggled with an issue which continues to plague his Red Bull car at the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Dutchman is hoping to extend his Formula 1 record and make it 11 wins in a row this weekend. And he will be the favourite to do so given the strong race pace of the Red Bull cars compared to their rivals.
But the evidence so far has suggested it might be the team's trickiest race of the year. Ferrari topped the timesheets in all three practice sessions while Red Bull, and Verstappen in particular, have been struggling to balance their cars.
Not only that but, in final practice on Saturday, Verstappen was having trouble with gear changes which were hampering his performance. At first, he identified the problem when changing upwards – but also said he was having issues when changing down as well.
And, given his tone over the radio, he was concerned about having the problem so close to qualifying. He said: "These upshifts, what the f***? I'm sorry but I cannot drive with these upshifts. What f***ing is this? Unacceptable."
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His race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase later asked him to head to the pit lane so his team could implement a possible fix. Verstappen obliged, but his bad mood was obvious again as he snippily replied: "I literally just came through the pits."
One final flying lap saw him move up the timesheets but only to fourth fastest. Asked at the end for some feedback over how the attempted fix had changed things, Verstappen provided some optimism that it was moving in the right direction, but that the problem had not disappeared altogether.
He told the team: "Maybe a little bit smoother but yeah, miles off still. It's just giving me wheelspin. It's not only upshifts but also downshifts. I'm just struggling for rear grip. Did you see that last sector? I'm just drifting. I think if I'm going to compete in drifting, I might win the race."
If Red Bull are to struggle more than usual this weekend, a queue is forming among the teams hoping to take advantage. The defending champions' 100 per cent record means they have all been starved of victories this season, but they will sense that this may be their chance to end that drought.
Ferrari were quickest in all three practice sessions so will hope to translate that into back-to-back pole positions. George Russell was second quickest in FP3 with Lando Norris just behind him, raising hopes in the Mercedes and McLaren garages as well.