Red Bull in Signapore with hands in the hair: Max Verstappen is having a difficult time, but that has nothing to do with stricter rules

rewrite this content and keep HTML tags © Getty ImagesIt was a bit of a shock on Saturday for Max Verstappen’s loyal fans. After a hopeless qualifying, the World Cup leader will only start eleventh in the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday. How is it possible that Red Bull is suddenly having such a difficult time? And is this perhaps due to the new technical guidelines of the FIA ​​motorsport federation?The answer to the second question is in any case ‘no’, several sources say. For example, it was suggested here and there that Red Bull had to adjust the floor and also the rear wing to meet the stricter guidelines (against wings and floors that are too flexible), but that turns out to be incorrect. Red Bull states that it did not have to make any adjustments to comply with the rules and the dramatic performance in Singapore has another cause.Verstappen and Pérez even drove with the old floor again on Saturday, because the new variant apparently did not yet meet the requirements on Friday. At the same time, it is telling how eager the bright minds within the team were to offer Verstappen and Pérez, ultimately in vain, a more comfortable car. Also on Saturdays.Not helpedThe adjustments to the RB19 that were made after the third training were rather counterproductive. “There was some improvement in the third training, after which we changed some things towards qualifying,” said Verstappen. “But it is clear that it did not help and that we do not understand the car well here. In qualifying I couldn’t brake hard and late, because then the car started to bounce, so to speak. And so I lost grip on the front tires. While being able to brake correctly is crucial on a street circuit.”So things can also go horribly wrong at Red Bull, because Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Pérez – winner in Singapore last year – did not even get further than the thirteenth fastest time. Verstappen reacted quite coolly in the media sessions and also internally and resigned to the fact that things are not going well this weekend. In that respect, his state of mind was very different last year after qualifying, when his team sent him out with too little fuel. That was truly a catastrophic blunder, although Red Bull will now also want to investigate in detail where exactly the problems in Singapore come from.© EPA-EFE1 percentVerstappen estimates the chance of a victory on Sunday to be less than 1 percent. After ten victories in a row, his impressive series seems to be coming to an end, while Red Bull has even been undefeated for fifteen games in a row. For the first time since the Russian Grand Prix in 2018, both Red Bull drivers failed to reach Q3 in qualifying. And at the time in Sochi, Verstappen and his then companion Daniel Ricciardo also chose to do so themselves, by not setting a time in the second qualifying session because they already knew that they had to start at the back due to grid penalties.The setup of a car is very important on a bumpy street circuit in Singapore and at Red Bull they were already expecting a tough weekend. If the sweet spot is still far from being found – as is called – then even a team like Red Bull can fall back that far. From eleventh on the grid, Verstappen will hope to move up a bit on Sunday, but he is no longer thinking about a podium place. “You can hardly overtake here. Our car is often good on Sundays, but to move up here you really have to be a few seconds faster than the others. And with this balance in the car, we are clearly not.”