Ex-IndyCar and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick was proven incorrect on Saturday at the Singapore Grand Prix, after predicting ahead of the session that Red Bull were playing games.
Red Bull made a dreadful start to the Singapore GP on Friday and encountered several issues with their car, much to Max Verstappen’s and Sergio Perez’s frustration.
Neither Red Bull driver featured towards the top of Free Practice 1 or Free Practice 2, making some believe that the Austrians had finally met their match.
Patrick wasn’t buying into Red Bull’s poor Friday display though and pondered whether games were being “played” by the unstoppable side.
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“I’m not always buying every time that a team has a bad day, or even a session,” Patrick said on Sky Sports F1 Friday evening.
“There’s probably games getting played, and then sometimes you just miss it.
“So yeah, not really counting them out. But they did come in saying it would probably be a little bit more of a struggle, and so far that’s been true… it’s only Friday.”
Free Practice 3 Saturday afternoon proved that Red Bull’s Singapore woes were very much real, and that games were definitely not being played by the side.
Patrick’s prediction was certainly seen as wrong in qualifying, where both Verstappen and Perez were eliminated in Q2.
Verstappen could only salvage 11th whilst Perez claimed 13th, after the Mexican span on his final hot lap in the second part of qualifying.
Astonishingly, both drivers were out-qualified by AlphaTauri stand-in Liam Lawson, who progressed to Q3 on just his third attempt.
With both Red Bull drivers struggling at one of the most demanding races on the calendar, it does look likely that the side’s 15-race winning streak will finally conclude on Sunday.
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Either Verstappen or Perez require the performance of their lives to fight through the field to claim victory for the team, to extend their winning streak against all odds.
Verstappen in particular will be desperate to recover on Sunday, given that he’s on a record-breaking winning streak of 10 races.
Concerningly, Perez has already admitted that Red Bull’s winning streak is “definitely” over, due to how weak they are in Singapore.