For 14 Formula 1 races, one of the two Red Bull drivers was always at the top of the podium, ten times in a row in Max Verstappen. Then came Singapore, where the Red Bulls duo didn’t come close to securing podium places after the FIA tightened the rules twice. Just a coincidence or was the Austrian racing team robbed of two of its tricks?
Last weekend, the previous dominators of Formula 1 were abruptly stopped at the Marina Bay Circuit in Singapore: the two Red Bulls missed out on qualifying for Q3 for the first time in five years (the last time this was the case at the Russian GP in 2018) and Even in the race, Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez only lagged behind despite slightly improved performance and had nothing to do with the fight for the top places.
This was preceded by two technical directives from the FIA with the numbers 18 and 39, which referred to the design options for the front and rear wings and the underbody in order to prohibit the teams from using flexible parts that could previously be hidden using clever mechanisms, keyword ‘Flexi Wings’. “Red Bull gives bends “Flüüüügel”: the Austrian racing team also had to put up with this accusation, which was slightly modified from the advertising.
But did the decline in performance in Singapore really come from the tightening of guidelines, which prevented possible trickery? Obviously not.
As former Formula 1 driver and current F1 expert Martin Brundle wrote in his column for “SkySports F1”, there is no truth to the theory that Red Bull’s tricks were discovered and they were slowed down as a result.
Formula 1: Red Bull will strike back
“Experts who are very knowledgeable and are not Red Bull employees have told me that they do not believe that the recent revision of the aerodynamic technical guidelines has anything to do with Red Bull’s difficulties in Singapore,” Brundle revealed.
“In fact, Red Bull looked pretty good in the race, and so we’re waiting for Suzuka in a few days to see if everything is back to normal there,” continued the sixth place in the 1992 World Championship.
Also sport.deF1 expert Felix Görner only believes in a slip-up by the Austrian racing team. “You have to quickly let the air out of all forecasts and destroy the hopes that Max Verstappen could also stumble in Japan. No! The blue empire will strike back. Suzuka is a fluid course that is tailor-made for Red Bull,” he predicted.
Red Bull itself, in the person of team boss Christian Horner, recently asserted that the FIA’s tightening measures had nothing to do with the sudden problems. “I know you all would like to blame it on the technical directives, but unfortunately we can’t blame it on that because we have [für Singapur] “Not a single component on the car changed,” said Horner.