Singapore Shocker: Red Bull’s Stunning Rebound and Ferrari’s Jaw-Dropping Collapse

Lando Norris drove a McLaren to a landslide victory in Singapore. He was in fine form from the start of practice on Friday afternoon and was looking forward to a fantastic weekend.

However, on day one Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) seemed to pose a very strong threat to Norris’ ambitions. Red Bull, on the other hand, was less brilliant.

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen were eighth and 15th fastest respectively in FP2, with Verstappen in particular unable to warm up his tyres and suffering from understeer on corner entry and a lack of traction on corner exit. This was in contrast to the well-balanced cars of McLaren and Ferrari.

Norris continued to fly well on Saturday and took a comfortable pole position. However, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on the front row, Ferrari’s momentum has been as dramatic as Red Bull’s resurgence.

What was behind this sudden turnaround? Red Bull came to the Singapore Street Course with a very soft and flexible base setup after a disappointing performance here last year due to the car bouncing and riding over the kerbs.

Lando Norris put in a stunning performance and won the race in Singapore.

“What we tried yesterday didn’t work,” Horner said shortly before qualifying. “The day after last year, we probably went in the wrong direction too, because we didn’t win this race last year and the ride over the bumps was shocking.”

“So we tried a few things this year to counteract that, but with a combination of resurfacing the circuit and making some setup changes, we ended up completely compensating for it. So today we’re pretty much back within the window. It’s here.”

“Sébastien Buemi, who has been with the team for many years, spent the night in the simulator and we refined the set-up.

The new, stiffer set-up of the RB20 was able to keep tyre temperatures within the working range, giving the car some front end edge, and Verstappen was able to manoeuvre the car skilfully and have a very good race.

Max Verstappen recovered from Friday’s slump to finish on the podium.

So how did it go for Ferrari? The track had changed enough on Saturday that the first sign that Ferrari was trending towards underperformance on its front tyres came as Leclerc was about to run a qualifying simulation lap in FP3.

His car went off the track at Turn 2 and he noticed that the front tires were not hot enough, so he used that lap to prepare for another lap. However, while the extra laps brought the front tires up to a comfortable temperature, the rear tires overheated before the end of the flying lap.

This shows that Ferrari has a fairly narrow tolerance range for tyre temperatures between the two axles.

Ferrari tried to make sure they were the last of the four teams to take to the track for the first run of Q3. Everyone was in the garage checking each other out, trying to find the perfect timing.

Leclerc and Carlos Sainz emerged from the pits, followed by the other drivers, but the Ferrari entered a dummy starting area with room for only two cars.

Charles Leclerc finished 9th on the grid, moving up to 5th.

As a result, they managed to get on the track right at the end, as they had hoped, but in doing so they lost valuable tyre temperature. This contributed to Sainz’s crash at the end of his lap. Because his rear tyres were not hot enough, he spun over a bump, backed into the barrier and crashed. This raised a red flag.

This prevented Sainz from recording a time and Leclerc was only able to complete one lap after the session resumed. His front tyres failed to warm up and he went off the track again at Turn 2, repeating the incident from FP3. A compromised lap (which would have been seventh at best) was cancelled for a track limit violation. In other words, the two highly capable Ferraris started from the fifth row.

Leclerc made a great comeback on Sunday to finish fifth, but was far behind Verstappen’s second place and Norris’s win. He explained after the race.

Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari cannot match Norris’ pace in Singapore.

“Yesterday I said that the tyres were not in the right condition and I was right. But looking back, as a driver you have to do your job even when the tyres are a bit on the limit. be”

“And in the end yesterday I wasn’t able to do my job as a driver. So I think the responsibility for not being able to do a lap in qualifying yesterday is more on my side. And today I paid the price.”

“From what I’ve heard about Lando’s pace, I don’t think our car had that much pace.”

Ferrari will undoubtedly hope to be able to do its best next time.

Category: Formula 1 / F1 Singapore GP