Christian Horner has admitted that the Singapore Grand Prix weekend revealed Red Bull’s previously unblemished RB19 and that it is a “very useful lesson” for their 2024 car.
Red Bull’s remarkable 15-race winning streak came to an end at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on Sunday after a double Q2 exit in qualifying, which Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez couldn’t overcome, as Carlos Sainz won for Ferrari.
Red Bull had been trailing since Friday, but Horner claimed the team understood their challenges far better after Sunday’s race and expects the unusual flaws discovered can be remedied for their 2024 RB20.
“I think maybe our simulation before the weekend didn’t lead us to the right conclusion and then you have to sort of unravel your way out of that. We just ended up in the wrong window and it exposed some of our weaknesses that the car has. It has actually been a very useful lesson for next year because it gives us a very useful insight on certain things that hopefully we can address in RB20.” Said Horner.
He added: “We understood a lot more in the race and the pace of the car came much more back to what we expected.
“We knew coming here we expected to have closer competition, but it took us a bit by surprised just how far our we were on Friday and we were just not in the right operating window for the car, particularly over a single lap.
“When you’re not there, the tyres feel horrible and everything just doesn’t work. I think we got a very good steer in the race. Particularly in the latter stint Max’s pace was very, very strong.”
Verstappen and Perez ran second and fourth for a short time by staying out, but they were quickly passed by George Russell, Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, and Charles Leclerc on their new tires.
The Red Bulls were forced to pit under racing conditions on laps 39 and 40, just before a lap 43 Virtual Safety Car deployment, with Verstappen and Perez re-emerging in 15th and 18th place, respectively, from which they each made up ten places in their final stint.
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