'Verstappen succeeded less than Perez' said Horner after disastrous Friday

Verstappen has been going through one of his trickiest spells in his F1 career, not winning since the Spanish Grand Prix as he struggles with a declining RB20.

Singapore was always going to be a challenge for Red Bull after showing a lack of pace in 2023, resulting in their only loss of the season, but Friday in Singapore had very few positives. In free practice two, Verstappen could only manage P15 as he struggled with a total lack of grip, finishing 1.2 seconds behind Lando Norris in P1. Teammate Sergio Perez also had his struggles with balance, as he could only finish in P8.

New parts not helping the RB20

Red Bull have brought a new floor to Singapore this weekend, hoping that their fortunes change around the Marina Bay Circuit. It is an evolution of the one introduced at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last weekend, a floor that looked to have made some improvement as Perez for the race win. The Mexican is also running a new chassis after his crash in Baku in the final few laps, but none of these changes seems to have made a difference.

Red Bull had some running on the hard tyres on Friday too, but that also made for grim reading, as they could not get above P15 and P15 on the white-walled tyres. Yuki Tsunoda was able to find more pace on the same tyre in the sister Visa Cash App RB car, a full second quicker than the RB20.

Speaking to Auto, Motor und Sport after Friday's running, Horer explained the reasons why Red Bull had such a trying day. "We could not get the tyres up to temperature. Max succeeded even less than Checo. Maybe because he had a bit less downforce. We tried many things, but nothing helped. There is still a lot of work to do," said the team boss, who suspected a fault in the mechanical set-up, which they will look to change with qualifying upcoming on Saturday.

This article was written in collaboration with Ludo van Denderen