Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has revealed why the team’s performance fell short of expectation at the Singapore Grand Prix.
After tough weekends in Belgium and Italy due to engine penalties, it was thought the streets of Marina Bay would offer Max Verstappen his best chance of victory post-summer break.
Instead, Red Bull was the third-fastest team behind Ferrari and Mercedes, only benefiting from the latter’s poor strategy to claim the final podium place via the Dutchman.
“The problem was in the simulator. We were totally misled there,” Marko told Austrian broadcaster ORF.
“The simulator is the basis of our setup for the race weekend, so if it is not right from there then you are in trouble.
“The problem is that we set up our chassis much too stiffly, which meant we lacked stability. We also had too little downforce.”
Team boss Christian Horner also admitted, Red Bull got lucky.
“It would have been worse if Mercedes had not made that strategy error,” he added.
What allowed the team to stay in contention during the race was the slow pace of the leaders as tyre management proved the major factor.
For new recruit Alex Albon, while he was frustrated in P6, he did admit Sunday’s two-hour drive was useful to understand his car better.
“At times it felt more like a procession than a race for me. It was also a bit frustrating as I spent the whole race stuck behind a Mercedes,” he commented.
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“I couldn’t overtake on the track I hoped that a pit stop would move me up the field but unfortunately that didn’t happen and then the Safety Car came out a few times.
“In the middle stint I wanted to get past Valtteri [Bottas] but I didn’t have the pace to overtake the Mercedes. I spent the whole race staring at a silver rear wing which wasn’t that fun.
“But all in all for my first time here it was a positive race. My pace was a lot better so I’m definitely making progress. Even during the race, I was finding little tricks to improve my speed.”