Max Verstappen blasts 'UNACCEPTABLE' Red Bull car

Singapore Grand Prix

Verstappen blasts 'UNACCEPTABLE' Red Bull car

The world championship leader is struggling so far in Singapore

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 16 September 2023 13:57

Max Verstappen continues to be unhappy about his car's performance at the Singapore Grand Prix, releasing an expletive-laden radio message to his team about his "unacceptable" Red Bull car during FP3.

Both he and his team-mate Sergio Perez were a long way off the pace during Friday practice, with them both complaining about their car, and there wasn't too much improvement in FP3 for the pair.

Verstappen managed to place fourth, 0.313 seconds off the pace, whilst Perez was down in eighth.

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The Dutchman, who is hoping to win his 11th consecutive Formula 1 race and claim victory in Singapore for the first time in his career, was audibly frustrated throughout the session.

“I’m sorry but I cannot drive through these upshifts," he told engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

"What the f**k is this? Unacceptable," he continued before, at the end of the session conceding, “Maybe a little bit smoother, but yeah. Miles off still. It’s just giving me wheelspin. It’s not only upshifts, also downshifts."

It all comes ahead of a qualifying session at the Marina Bay circuit that is expected to be crucial, with overtaking at the Singapore GP notoriously difficult.

Impressive Ferrari pace

Ferrari have looked quick so far in Singapore

Ferrari had been expecting to be slower in Singapore, after arguably their strongest performance of the season last time out at the Italian GP.

There, Carlos Sainz managed to beat Verstappen to pole position on the Saturday, before converting a strong qualifying into a third and fourth place finish for he and team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Sainz even managed to keep Verstappen behind him for the first 14 laps of the race, the most amount of laps any non-Red Bull driver has managed to lead in the whole of 2023, such has been the dominance of Verstappen and Perez.

If they were to have another strong qualifying, it would be much easier for Sainz or Leclerc to defend from the Red Bulls at Singapore due to the tight nature of the street circuit making it difficult to overtake.

Judging off practice, this is now a real possibility. A Ferrari has led all three practice sessions, and they will go into qualifying full of confidence.

Red Bull have a lot of work to do if they are to challenge Sainz and Leclerc for pole postion. Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok summarised some of the problems Verstappen may be facing.

“They get so much information," he said.

"Nowadays, the way they run their gear shifts is so seamless. You don’t feel a shift in the torque, you don’t feel that instability that you used to get under braking or on an upshift.

"It’s all gone in modern Formula 1, it’s all managed by the electronics and the engine management systems. Clearly, there’s still some sort of sync issue there, which is creating some sort of destabilizing factor for Max."