Max Verstappen was far from impressed with Red Bull’s opening day performance at the Singapore Grand Prix, with the Dutchman having admitted that the car is “way worse than we expected”.
Despite having dominated the entirety of 2023 so far, Red Bull endured one of their worst opening days of the season at the Marina Bay Circuit, where they were considerably slower than Ferrari.
Sergio Perez ended Friday in seventh just over three-hundredths of a second ahead of Verstappen in eighth, although both drivers were around seven-tenths behind pacesetter Carlos Sainz.
Both drivers complained about the RB19’s rear end throughout the day, with Perez even struggling to trust his car in the braking zones as a result.
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As well as his rear end, Verstappen was also unhappy with his car’s upshifts, something he’s complained about at almost every Grand Prix this season.
The pressure is certainly on the Austrians to find some performance ahead of qualifying, especially as Ferrari ended Friday in first and second.
Ferrari are looking “very fast” at the Marina Bay Circuit and are arguably the favourites to claim a second consecutive pole position, after Sainz stormed to P1 at the Italian Grand Prix.
Interestingly, the Maranello-based team were also on pole in Singapore 12 months ago, courtesy of Charles Leclerc.
It was Perez who claimed the 2022 race win though, something which currently doesn’t look likely.
As things stand, Red Bull’s 16-race winning streak looks at serious threat of ending, as does Verstappen’s record-breaking 10-race winning streak.
The Dutchman wasn’t pleased at the end of the opening day and isn’t optimistic that he’ll be fighting for pole, given Ferrari’s pace.
“The Ferraris are very fast, but I think we’re just way worse than we expected,” Verstappen admitted Friday evening, as reported by the official F1 website.
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“We’re just struggling a lot with the balance of the car.
“We tried quite a few things in FP2; some worked, some didn’t. We never really got the car together so it’s quite a few things to figure out tonight.
When asked if he can fight for pole, Verstappen said: “I will try to, of course, improve. But it’s quite a big gap.”