Red Bull discovered 'weakness' in RB19: "Very useful lesson for next year"

Christian Horner argues that the Singapore Grand Prix weekend exposed a weakness of Red Bull Racing's previously unbeaten RB19. The team boss calls it a "very useful lesson" that will be used for the successor to the current Formula 1 car, the RB20.

Red Bull were searching all weekend for the right balance for the car for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. During the race on Sunday, the car performed clearly better, but the podium was not within reach. This was partly due to bad luck with the safety car, but in addition, the team never got the car in the right window.

Horner: 'Problems in Singapore exposed weakness of RB19'

Still, the Austrian formation can take one positive from the disappointing weekend. "We just ended up in the wrong window, and it exposed some of our weaknesses that the car has," Horner explained to Sky Sports. "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."

Given the performance over the weekend and the fact that both Red Bulls were already stranded in Q2, the pace during the race was not too bad. "I think we got a very good steer in the race. Particularly in the latter stint, Max's pace was very, very strong," the Red Bull team boss continued. "All considered, the recovery that we had and the pace we had in the latter part of the race was a strong race."

Horner outlines expectations for Japanese GP

Horner expects Red Bull to simply compete for victory again at the Japanese Grand Prix. "A completely different layout, completely different type of circuit, so, hopefully, we can be competitive in Japan. Let's see if it's circuit-specific. If Ferrari are suddenly first and second in Japan next weekend, then we'll see if there's a significant jump," he continued.

"We've seen form move around so much this year - the one consistent was ourselves, and this weekend we were the one that found ourselves slightly out of shape, and while we recovered in the race, the Safety Car completely screwed it for us," Horner said.