Even if it will not officially go down in history as a pole position, Friday in Singapore saw a first: for the first time in his career in Formula 1, Max Verstappen finished at the top of a qualifying session on the Marina Bay street circuit.
This underlines the RB22’s strength in slow-speed corners, of which there are plenty on the Singapore street circuit, although Verstappen himself was still somewhat surprised by the result.
“It’s always tight here in Singapore. You push as hard as you think, close to the walls in places. Once we put on the soft tires I felt like the car came to life a bit more, but I didn’t expect that,” said the Dutchman.
When asked why he didn’t expect to set the fastest time, Verstappen highlighted the limitations that are still inherent in the RB22, particularly when it comes to handling bumps and curbs.
“I think in the last two races we have been much stronger, but this track still highlights some small weaknesses in our car. But fortunately we managed to drive as well as possible with them.”
This earned Verstappen the sprint pole by a margin of 0.120 seconds over his closest challenger George Russell. Charles Leclerc followed at 0.243 seconds, ahead of the two McLarens.
These four drivers approached the final part of sprint qualifying differently from Verstappen, who completed just one flying lap on the soft tires at the end.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
This variation in approaches during the final segment of Friday’s qualifying session surprised tire supplier Pirelli.
“What was interesting from our side was that in SQ3, with the soft compound, we had three different approaches for the top three in the standings,” said Pirelli chief engineer Simone Berra.
“Basically, Verstappen did an out-push-in and was the fastest. Russell decided to do a cool out-push-double then push again. And Leclerc did a cool out-push-one then a push. Different approaches and in the end, with this low degradation and the possibility of recovering performance, all three worked well.”
The idea behind Red Bull’s approach was simple: exploit the maximum performance of the tires when the track was at its best – although the latter was relative, as the Singapore street circuit offered less grip than Pirelli had anticipated due to the enormous amount of dust.
Red Bull’s approach appears to have contributed to Verstappen’s advantage, but when Motorsport.com explained it to Berra, he explained that it had not proven to be the main differentiator in terms of performance.
“Honestly, I don’t think any of the three approaches are the best compared to the others. It’s just a question of the performance of the car and also the driver, I would say. It’s a street circuit so the drivers increase their confidence lap after lap,” Berra said.
“Some drivers prefer to have a first push, then a recovery procedure, then push again, whereas in my opinion Max preferred to just go and push as much as possible. It’s a different approach from a driver’s point of view.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
According to Berra, it also depends on the driver’s state of mind. The approach involving multiple push laps gave them the opportunity to complete a faster lap first, thereby reducing the pressure on the final attempt.
The single flying lap approach was riskier: not only because of the possibility of a yellow or red flag, but also in terms of track limits – something Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly experienced themselves.
However, Pirelli stressed that Verstappen was ultimately fastest on merit and that different race plans could not fully explain his advantage.
“In terms of tire temperatures and maximum grip, I think you can have good performance over several laps. You could even improve on a second attempt with worn tires, so it wasn’t a big gain for Max. It was very interesting because he decided to just have one go and it worked well.”
According to team principal Laurent Mekies, the fact that Red Bull managed to take the sprint pole on merit is all the more encouraging given the bumps on the circuit on Friday.
“It was a difficult FP1 this morning for both cars. It’s difficult to find the right balance on this track. Lots of bumps, it’s very, very bumpy,” said the French team principal.
“We struggled a lot with the bumps, but Max, Isack and the engineers did a really good job between FP1 and SQ. They managed to improve the car.”
“It’s not perfect, but the pole is there and it probably shows that everyone is suffering from the track surface. So it’s good for us. It’s still a very long weekend, but it’s good to be back.”
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