Verstappen to “forget about” extending F1 win streak in Singapore GP

Red Bull has struggled to find performance all weekend on the Marina Bay track, and after a set-up change made things worse for qualifying, the Dutchman couldn’t better 11th place.

Speaking to his team as he drove back to the pitlane he said that the session had been “a shocking experience”.

He then faced investigations into three impeding incidents, including one in the pitlane, emerging with two reprimands but no grid penalties.

Verstappen made it clear that from 11th he doesn’t think he can win Sunday’s race.

“You can forget about that,” he said when asked if he could fight for victory. “You can’t pass. On other tracks you can start last, I mean probably in Spa you can start last and win the race, but not here.

“Here you need to be two or three seconds faster to have a chance to pass. And so that’s just street circuit stuff.”

Verstappen acknowledged that it was more important to understand why the team struggled in Singapore rather than worry about ending his winning streak.

“I knew that there was a day that you’re not winning anymore,” he said. “But also we had a really good run anyway, up until now.

“I would always take a season like we’re winning this much and having one really bad weekend over the other way around, where you’re not fighting for the championship, and then you’re winning here.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“But I think it’s more important that we just understand what we did wrong this weekend. Because I’m confident that next week we go to Suzuka, and the car is fast again.

“It already felt like that also in the simulator that this was a difficult set-up window for the car, then we went to Suzuka and it just felt amazing again, like most of the races.”

Verstappen admitted that a change for qualifying had gone in the wrong direction.

“I think actually this morning, although FP3 was better, we made some good progress,” he said. “It was, of course, still not where we want it to be. But it was looking like something.

“Then we made a few more changes, which we thought the set-up, the car, would allow. Then we got into qualifying and the first big problem I had was that I couldn’t brake late and hard because I would bottom out and it would unload the front tyres.

“On a street circuit that is something which is very crucial, to be confident on the brakes, and attack the corners. So I couldn’t do that.

“Besides that, also just the low-speed corners, where I think we have been struggling already the whole weekend. I just had no rear support.

“So I just kept on like having mini slides, or in my final lap a big one in Turn 3. And when it’s like that there is no lap time.”

He added: “Clearly, we just don’t understand that issue. Otherwise, you don’t make these kinds of changes and it’s worse, so we were clearly not understanding the car this weekend around this track.”

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