Max Verstappen: Singapore Grand Prix was a "wake-up call" for Red Bull
- Bobby Vincent
Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen has admitted the Singapore Grand Prix was a "little wake-up call" for his team despite the Dutchman beating both Mercedes drivers to the podium at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Verstappen's Red Bull team were among the favourites for the race in Singapore, with their decent record there in recent times. However, Ferrari surprised the majority of the Formula 1 world with their outstanding pace in Asia.
Despite being pleased to reach the top three again in Singapore, the Dutchman was rather disappointed with his team's efforts in F1's night race.
"It was not good enough," Verstappen bluntly said to Crash.net. "We came here to win and we clearly didn't. I would say it's a little wake-up call. From Austria onwards, I would say it's our worst race in terms of performance where we expected to be really good.
"I have a few ideas why it went wrong so we will analyse all of them and see if we can already be better at Sochi. The layout is not amazing for us, but you can clearly see if the car is working through corners or not."
Alexander Albon, Verstappen's team-mate at Red Bull, finished in P6 at the Marina Bay circuit, staying out of some of the mayhem behind and ahead and he managed to drive a solid race during his first F1 experience at the physically demanding track.