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The Singapore GP confirmed a “chink in the armour” of Red Bull, however was it an indication of issues to come back for the rest of the 2023 season or only a one-off?

Sky Sports F1’s Simon Lazenby and Anthony Davidson joined Matt Baker on the most recent version of the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, which you’ll hearken to in full within the participant under, to debate that matter after Red Bull’s profitable streak got here to an finish.

Having gained the earlier 15 races in a row, Red Bull’s dominant RB19 regarded a shadow of its former self on the streets of Marina Bay as each Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez suffered Q2 exits in qualifying earlier than ending fifth and eighth respectively within the race whereas Carlos Sainz claimed victory for Ferrari.

Lazenby mentioned: “The baseline set-up wasn’t right from the start so they were playing catch up. Max didn’t seem to have any confidence in the first sector, he was bottoming out under braking. It’s all about braking and traction out of slow corners and [Red Bull] had neither of those.

“With regards to the automotive itself, we all know as an aero platform it tends to work on most circuits now however the slow-speed corners mixed with the bumpy nature of the monitor and the actual fact there have been such massive kerbs, it meant they needed to regulate the experience top and that threw the set-up off slightly bit.

“They tried some tweaks between the third practice session and qualifying with the software to try and counter that so they could run it a bit lower and it just got worse.

“It was only a mixture of issues. There’s been discuss whether or not the technical directives on the flexi entrance wings and underside of the automotive had performed something into this however I’m unsure that is the case. That may very well be a crimson herring however we’ll discover out in Suzuka. Christian (Horner) was taking part in it down, the workforce had been saying it was completely nothing to do with that it’s simply ‘we have an unbalanced automotive, we will not get the set-up proper’.

“It got slightly better in the race, they got unlucky. They were holding out and the Safety Car came too early for them on the hard tyres and then when they pitted, three laps later the Virtual Safety Car came out. Timing wise they got a little bit unlucky in the race, they knew what they were trying to do.

“But in the end all of it stems from the actual fact they did not get qualifying proper and that is back-to-back years now the place it is not paid off for Max Verstappen. It regarded like he was simply skating throughout the monitor at instances.

“For them it was a horrible weekend but for everybody watching from the neutral’s perspective it just was a breath of fresh air for the competition. We needed that weekend, we needed to see that there was a chink in the armour and obviously Red Bull being Red Bull will go away and work on that and clearly improve the car for next year.

“It’s a double-edged sword – Ferrari will suppose we acquired them this 12 months in Singapore however Red Bull will get it proper as that automotive has acquired very, only a few weaknesses.”

Davidson likened Red Bull’s weekend to how Mercedes additionally had years once they struggled in Singapore once they had been the dominant workforce, and expects the RB19 to be the automotive to beat once more on the Japanese GP at Suzuka this weekend.

Davidson mentioned: “It reminded me of Mercedes in their dominant years when they arrived in Singapore and that was their Achilles heel and everybody had a chance to get the better of them there. They went away and worked on that circuit relentlessly because it was their only weakness, they understood they had a weakness there, and they came back in a couple of years and had sorted it out so I fully expect Red Bull as the great engineering team that they are will get their heads around it.

“Max will likely be far more in his aspect and the automotive will likely be far more in its aspect in Suzuka, I’m totally anticipating that. I do not suppose the brand new TD and the rule change by way of extra static entrance wings, I do not imagine that was the primary situation for Red Bull in Singapore.

“There will be many teams out there crossing their fingers and hoping that that was why Red Bull lost their speed but I’m fully expecting them to go back to Suzuka and the car be flying again.

“But it’s fascinating and it is good to know that they’ve this weak point of their automotive.”

Davidson intrigued to see Ferrari’s Suzuka efficiency

Sainz’s victory in Singapore got here off the again of he and team-mate Charles Leclerc ending third and fourth at Ferrari’s dwelling Italian GP.

While Monza and the Marina Bay Street Circuit have very totally different traits by way of downforce necessities, Davidson defined why Ferrari’s automotive traits helped them excel at each circuits and he’s now intrigued to see how the SF23 performs at Suzuka which has a number of the quickest corners on the F1 calendar.

“Ferrari are definitely one of those teams that have kept up with the pack and maybe their updates have edged ahead of teams like Aston Martin that we’ve seen in the last couple of races,” Davidson mentioned.

“People think of Monza as this high-speed circuit, which it is because it has lots of straight lines, but it doesn’t have many high-speed corners and you don’t run high downforce there. It’s all about the braking and the slow-speed corners. Just like Singapore.

“You would not suppose the 2 actually are on the identical aircraft right here – and by way of downforce they don’t seem to be – however by way of automotive necessities – braking stability, low-speed corners, plenty of traction – that is what you want at Monza as nicely.

“So the Ferrari has been quite good on those circuits…I’m waiting to see if Ferrari can carry on this pace when they get to a higher speed, faster-flowing circuit [like Suzuka].”

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