Formula One commentators were looking to the history books for signs that the Red Bull winning streak would come to an eventual end. On a similar run back in 1988 it was Ferrari in Monza who won their only race of the season to stop a McLaren clean sweep.
Yet despite claiming pole at the Italian Grand Prix last time out, Carlos Sainz could only hold off there charging RB19 of Max Verstappen for fourteen laps before the inevitable overtake came form the dutch driver who went on to win the race.
Ghost of Monza failed
While this weekend the points are handed out on Sunday, it already seems impossible for Max or Checo to win from their starting places outside the top ten.
Verstappen is under investigation from the stewards for multiple incidents and so his current P11 may yet get worse over the coming hours.
So the ghost of Monza failed to stop Red Bull in its tracks but it is suspected by a number of paddock observers that the long arm of the FIA may have delivered where Ferrari could not.
A new technical directive from F1’s governing body firming up the construction techniques allowed for front wings and the underfloor. The FIA suspect their have been wings that are flexing and floors on certain cars that have moving parts.
FIA technical directive rumoured to hurt RBR
Red Bull were experimenting with a new floor edge on Friday on both their cars which created the suspicion that they had fallen foul of the FIA directive and were forced into redesigning a significant part of the RB19.
Yet Christian Horner when questioned by Sky F1 was adamant.
“The car that we have here for qualifying is essentially the identical car that we had two weeks ago in Monza and a week before that in Zandvoort.”
Simon Lazenby pressed the Red Bull boss on whether the technical directive introduced to clamp down on flexi-wings and bendy floors had an impact on the RB19.
FIA punishment for Helmut Marko
Horner denies ruke change effect
“No. Nothing’s changed on the car,” replied an adamant Horner.
“We tried a new aero part on Friday. We thought ‘ok we’ll revert on that component’.
The Red Bull boss was insistent that the RB19 in Singapore was the same as the one which has won 14 races this season.
“It’s a tried and tested set-up that we have but it just hasn’t responded on this circuit, on this asphalt. Trying to get the tyres into the window has been very, very hard for both drivers.”
Hamilton “didn’t build anything” says Alonso
Red Bull still “confused”
Clearly the Red Bull team and its engineers have aced the car setup at every circuit the F1 circus has visited in 2023. However Singapore appears to have befuddled the great minds in Milton Keynes as Horner revealed.
“It’s very very confusing to have dropped the amount of pace we have. The car is not responding to changes – understeer, oversteer, braking issues,” Horner told Sky.
“It’s like we haven’t managed to get the tyre into the right working window. Usually when you see a gap that big, it’s because the tyre isn’t fundamentally working.
“We have tried different things with setup, different preparations and it’s just not happened.”
Hamilton already looking to next contract
Horner not hopeful
There is little the F1 teams can do with cars when they are in parc ferme following qualifying so its difficult to see which rabbit Red Bull can pull out of the hat tonight.
That said Horner was defiant stating: “A lot for us to understand tonight to try and turnaround and it will be very, very tough for us to make good progress tomorrow but we will be trying very hard.
“We’ll see tomorrow. We won’t give up on anything but starting outside the top-10, on a track that’s really hard to overtake at, we’ve got quite a lot on.”
Sergio Perez who spun on his final run in qualifying two has landed himself a qualifying position of P13, although he may yet benefit from investigations the stewards are conducting into the behaviour of a number of drivers provisional set to start ahead of him.
Perez claims he had car failure
Checo revealed he had an issue which forced the car out of control after a “massive under-delivery from the engine and then it kicked really hard. I ended up losing the car. It’s a massive shame. I think Q3 was possible.”
Red Bull were struggling with engine management software issues in final practice session before qualifying and Perez believes he has no hope of a podium tomorrow.
“I think if we are able to score a few points, I will be pleased with that,” the down beat Mexican driver concluded.
Max Verstappen has won races during his Formula One career from as low as the starting place of P14, but he was dismissive that there was any hope of a repeat performance in the Singapore Grand Prix.
Hamilton/Verstappen united in FIA cricitisim
Verstappen scorns a points finish
“No, no, for sure not. Here it’s much less about actually having a good race car. It’s a bit like Monaco, you put it all on qualifying and even if you have degradation it doesn’t matter because people won’t really pass you – the tyre wear is not that high.
“It will be a long, tough afternoon. Hopefully not too many safety cars and the race will be quite short.”
When questioned whether any penalties from the stewards would hamper a drive through the field Verstappen appeared not to care if he even failed to score a point.
“At this point, it was so messy that it doesn’t matter if we start P11, 15th or last. It’s more important that we just understand why it was so bad. For me, that’s way more important than trying to score a couple of points this weekend.”
Ricciardo slammed by former F1 champ
Hamilton loses out again to Russell
Lewis Hamilton had a miserable day being out qualified by his teammate for the third race weekend in a row. His Mercedes car was almost half a second slower than George Russell who lost out on pole position to Carlos Sainz by a mere 72 milliseconds.
Charles Leclerc has also been beaten for three straight qualifying sessions by his team mate and admitted he just didn’t have the pace for better than P3.
One final startling fact remains to report. The rookie Liam Lawson brought in to replace the injured Daniel Ricciardo, was the highest placed Red Bull group driver as he knocked Max Verstappen out of Q2 by just 7 milliseconds.
Lawson also beat his team mate and has a provisional starting place of tenth for the race tomorrow.
READ MORE: Horner responds to Hamilton demands Marko sanctioned
Talk about a Singapore Send! 🔥 🌶️ #SingaporeGP 🇸🇬 #F1
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) September 16, 2023
Too early for definitive conclusions.
Suzuka will show more clearly whether their performance has truly got hampered because of that new TD.
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