Breaking news
Formula 1 Singapore GP
Verstappen lacks the "speed to attack" in Singapore
Max Verstappen has no answers for his Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team’s lack of pace in qualifying in Singapore – and is pessimistic about his chances of progressing in the race.
Adam Cooper Erwin Jaeggi
Edited: Sep 22, 2019, 8:22 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
At a track where many expected Red Bull to shine, Verstappen earned fifth in Q1, fourth in Q2 and fourth in Q3, 0.6 seconds behind Ferrari's polesitter Charles Leclerc.
“Of course I’m disappointed with the result,” the Dutch driver said. “At the moment I don’t have a clear answer on why.
“Yesterday [Friday] felt alright, but not amazing. Some corners we were lacking and we couldn’t really explain why. Today [Saturday] we couldn’t make the gains like we wanted to compared to Mercedes and Ferrari.
"Clearly that hurt us in qualifying. If you ask me why, the balance was alright, but just not enough grip on some corners I guess.
“I think the last sector was pretty OK, but even when driving I felt there was more potential, but just couldn’t use it.
“I haven’t looked to the data yet where we were losing, but I can pretty much imagine where it was, and it’s been like that the whole weekend. We just didn’t have enough grip on four wheels.”
Read Also:
Verstappen downplayed his chances of progressing in Sunday’s race, in which he'll start behind Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari.
“I don’t know, to be honest starting fourth is not very promising of course to try and win the race, but let’s see what’s going to happen tomorrow," he said.
"I think we are more dependent on what happens in front of us. I don't think we really have the speed to attack. You actually saw yesterday that things didn't go that well with us during the long runs."
Albon deficit down to experience
Singapore was the first proper qualifying battle between Verstappen and his new teammate Alex Albon after the drivers took penalties in Spa and Monza.
The rookie, who admitted that he struggled on his first visit to the track, was 0.6s off Verstappen in Q3, ending up sixth, behind the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.
“It’s OK, it’s not great though, and I would want to be doing better than that,” Albon said. “The track’s not easy, it’s one of the tracks with the biggest gaps between drivers in a general sense.
“To be honest through qualifying it was a little bit of a lack of experience really, I think. The car went away from me a bit all through until the last run in Q3 and we did a couple of changes and it went a lot better.
"If I knew that before obviously I would have made that call earlier in the session in Q1 or Q2. So, kind of learning, if I did it again I would have made quite a few changes.
“It’s not easy, this track is bumpy and just the way to drive the car, it’s tricky out there. Confidence does take a while to build up, especially on this track.
"Even my [Friday] crash was a bump. It’s part of the learning experience. You can see it, the Mercedes are always bouncing around everywhere.”
Alexander Albon, Red Bull Racing RB15
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Bottas says unplanned Hamilton move hurt him in Q3
Next article Revealed: The changes that transformed Ferrari in Singapore
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Adam Cooper
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
More from
Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen "needs to understand what happened" after "night and day" F1 comeback in Brazilian GP
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
13 h
Max Verstappen "needs to understand what happened" after "night and day" F1 comeback in Brazilian GP
‘I’ll try to win, somehow’ – Can Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen fight back for F1 Brazilian GP victory?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
21 h
‘I’ll try to win, somehow’ – Can Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen fight back for F1 Brazilian GP victory?
More from
Red Bull Racing
F1 Brazilian GP: Sunday schedule, weather forecast and how to watch
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
F1 Brazilian GP: Sunday schedule, weather forecast and how to watch
Max Verstappen watched Premier League football during Brazilian GP qualifying delay: "12 hours I'll never get back"
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
Max Verstappen watched Premier League football during Brazilian GP qualifying delay: "12 hours I'll never get back"
Latest news
Winners and losers from MotoGP’s contentious Qatar Grand Prix
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
17 min
Winners and losers from MotoGP’s contentious Qatar Grand Prix
Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 h
Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso
Carlos Ezpeleta: Qatar GP “noise” left MotoGP unnecessarily exposed
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
2 h
Carlos Ezpeleta: Qatar GP “noise” left MotoGP unnecessarily exposed
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe