Verstappen blast “UNACCEPTABLE” Red Bull’s car.

In FP3, Max Verstappen continued to express his displeasure with the performance of his Red Bull car at the Singapore Grand Prix by sending a profanity-filled radio message to his team.

He and teammate Sergio Perez both lamented their cars during Friday practice as they fell far behind the leaders, and neither driver made much progress in Free Practice 3.

Verstappen finished fourth, 0.313 seconds off the lead, and Perez came in eighth.

The Dutch driver, who wants to win his 11th straight Formula 1 race and make Singapore his first career victory, was audibly frustrated throughout the practice.

He told engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, “I’m sorry, but I can’t drive through these upshifts.”.

He continued, “What the f**k is this?
Unacceptable,” before acknowledging, “Maybe a little bit smoother, but yeah,” at the session’s conclusion.
Still miles away. Wheelspin is all it’s doing to me. Downshifts are included in addition to upshifts.
“.

All of this occurs before qualifying at the Marina Bay circuit, which is anticipated to be crucial because overtaking is notoriously difficult at the Singapore GP.

Amazing Ferrari speed.

Following what was arguably their best performance of the season at the Italian GP, Ferrari had anticipated being slower in Singapore.

Carlos Sainz beat out Verstappen to win the pole on Saturday, and he and teammate Charles Leclerc finished third and fourth after a strong qualifying effort.

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

Sainz or Leclerc would find it much simpler to fend off the Red Bulls in Singapore if they had another strong qualifying performance because the city’s congested streets make overtaking challenging.

Based on past experience, this is currently a possibility.
Ferrari will enter qualifying with a lot of confidence after taking the lead in each of the three practice sessions.

Red Bull must put in a lot of effort if they want to compete with Sainz and Leclerc for pole position.
Karun Chandhok, a Sky Sports F1 analyst, summarized some of the issues Verstappen might be having.

They are inundated with information, he said.

“Gear shifts are handled so seamlessly in modern vehicles. You don’t notice a change in the torque, and the instability you used to experience when braking or shifting up has disappeared.

In today’s Formula 1, everything is controlled by electronics and engine management systems.
It is obvious that there is still some sort of sync problem there, which is giving Max some sort of unstable situation.
“.