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Max Verstappen says a third place at the Singapore Grand Prix is not good enough for Red Bull.
The Dutchman found himself coming under pressure in the latter stages of the race from Lewis Hamilton, who closed in after a series of safety car restarts.
Verstappen held off the five-time world champion to take the final spot on the podium, but insists that Red Bull arrived in Singapore with the intention to win the race.
"[It was] not good enough," Verstappen said. "We came here to win and clearly didn’t. Yesterday I think was worse than today but I would say it’s a little wake-up call.
"From Austrian onwards, it’s maybe our worst race in terms of performance, where we expected to be really good. I have a few ideas why it went wrong so we will analyse all of them and see if we can already be better in Sochi.
"The layout is not that amazing for us but you can clearly see if the car is working through corners or not. I think here, clearly, in too many corners the car was not working like I wanted it to. We’ll go home and see what we can do better."
Focusing on exits helped keep Hamilton behind
Verstappen added that focusing on getting good exits out of corners was the key in allowing him to keep Hamilton behind at the end of the race.
"My tyres were going off a little bit but I think it’s quite normal," Verstappen said. "His tyres were seven or eight laps better than mine and with seven laps to go I didn’t have any problems so it really started to be with four laps to go.
"Then you could see he was closing in so I just had to make sure I had good exits out of some crucial corners where I knew he was going to be quick.
"We managed to do that. I guess the people in the garage were a bit more nervous. I was just focusing on getting good exits."
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C. Sainz jr
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Replies (3)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
In theory, Singapore should be all up RBH's alley: a tighter, slower track with less emphasis on power. In reality however, RB hasn't won around Singapore since 2013. In fact, Merc' has won here every race aside from 2015, when Ferrari grabbed a double podium. It's almost like RB has all the tools to be good around here, but haven't mastered them.
Pistonhead
Posts: 556
I like Max's comments. He has matured nicely and it is not arrogant to say the team expected more - it's a statement that shows he is now in command of all things in this team and his new stature Im sure will mean RBH will indeed need to pull their socks up to keep him satisfied. Albon has a gap to close in the next few races to keep his seta for 2020, he's not off track, but he does need to get a couple of strong ones in in the next 4 I think.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
It's definitely sounding like he's learning his lessons and approaching in a more mature way. It's got to be hard to swallow not being ahead in Singapore but it was a race that really came down to strategy and it didn't hurt that Ferrari had that little extra horse power to keep ahead on the straights. If he would have got pole he probably would have had very tough fight against the Ferraris, but he probably could have kept the others behind like LeClerc did and would have had a chance at the top step. Sounds like he's learnt that he has to get his wheels planted before hitting the fast pedal instead of spinning his tires around the curbs.