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In general Max has everything to gain and nothing to lose. The WDC is a very long shot and if he wants to win it, he has to go full send and try something risky. If he DNF's thats okay as it looks like he will win a few more races to finish the year. If he gains a win it would be incredibly spectacular. Getting P2 to Piastri's P3 makes no dent into Piastri's lead. So it's P1 or nothing IMO. Also we don't know the relative car performances till the end of the year. Given that this is the case, it is even more important for Max to take all the risks NOW. It's now or never and if it's never it's perfectly fine as , as far as the WDC goes Max was never in it to begin with. Even him winning from here would be the biggest steal in the history of the sport by far.
We don't know what Max we will see in the race today - geniusMax or madMax
Just show Max George's killer T1 in Barcelona, and he will know what to do
In general Max has everything to gain and nothing to lose. The WDC is a very long shot and if he wants to win it, he has to go full send and try something risky. If he DNF's thats okay as it looks like he will win a few more races to finish the year. If he gains a win it would be incredibly spectacular. Getting P2 to Piastri's P3 makes no dent into Piastri's lead. So it's P1 or nothing IMO. Also we don't know the relative car performances till the end of the year. Given that this is the case, it is even more important for Max to take all the risks NOW. It's now or never and if it's never it's perfectly fine as , as far as the WDC goes Max was never in it to begin with. Even him winning from here would be the biggest steal in the history of the sport by far.
We don't know what Max we will see in the race today - geniusMax or madMax
Just show Max George's killer T1 in Barcelona, and he will know what to do
Rundown to turn 1 is so short though in Singapore, also starting on the dirtier side, at least he has the inside line, so he can force George off if he gets his nose in. I don't give Max a high chance, pole wins 60+ percent of the time in Singapore. Will need something special or a great strategy call for the win.
In general Max has everything to gain and nothing to lose. The WDC is a very long shot and if he wants to win it, he has to go full send and try something risky. If he DNF's thats okay as it looks like he will win a few more races to finish the year. If he gains a win it would be incredibly spectacular. Getting P2 to Piastri's P3 makes no dent into Piastri's lead. So it's P1 or nothing IMO. Also we don't know the relative car performances till the end of the year. Given that this is the case, it is even more important for Max to take all the risks NOW. It's now or never and if it's never it's perfectly fine as , as far as the WDC goes Max was never in it to begin with. Even him winning from here would be the biggest steal in the history of the sport by far.
We don't know what Max we will see in the race today - geniusMax or madMax
Any Max that Maximizes relative points to Piastri or just kills a potential WDC fight is good enough for me
Of all the remaining tracks this season, Singapore is theoretically by far our weakest. And "in Max's hands," the RB21 is superior to the McL-39. Max is clearly playing the long game for the championship, and if there were any skeptics left, Norris's move (I re-watched his in-lap onboard, and he is CLEARLY slowing down ON PURPOSE) proves just how much Norris, and McLaren to some extent, consider him a threat. Norris is more worried about a driver who is 44 points behind him than the one who is 25 points ahead... that shows you the ENTIRE CONTINENT Max occupies in his head.
Now, to capitalize on this opportunity, the pit wall and the mechanics need to be on the same lvl as Max. We need clean pit stops, smart strategies cause unlike McLaren, we can't afford any mistakes. Also very confident for the race, the Mercedes should chew through its tires, so I expect Max will get past George fairly quickly.
Max P2 lap with telemetry. They changed old camera lens with new higher FOV lens that are already present on most cars, but were for whatever reason absent on red bulls until now. While it does provide more sense of speed I feel actual image quality is reduced, just feels more blurry. Not sure which one I like more.
Looking at this and Russel's pole lap, mercedes is noticeably more stable on the rear coming out of corners, RB21 looks a lot more floaty and unsettled.
Kimi has said from the get go that the Mercedes car has a very good rear end that he can trust. Red Bull and Max are probably much more on the limit to fight a clearly better Mercedes with George driving it.
Kimi has said from the get go that the Mercedes car has a very good rear end that he can trust. Red Bull and Max are probably much more on the limit to fight a clearly better Mercedes with George driving it.
When Kimi set a purple sector 2 even after having small corrections in Q3, I knew it was going to be difficult to match them and then RUS put in a strong lap and made it even harder. I think the Mercs just got the most out of the tires compared to RBR and MCL. Max had been saving tires in sector 1 on every lap, but Merc pace forced him into pushing there on his final run.
Kimi has said from the get go that the Mercedes car has a very good rear end that he can trust. Red Bull and Max are probably much more on the limit to fight a clearly better Mercedes with George driving it.
When Kimi set a purple sector 2 even after having small corrections in Q3, I knew it was going to be difficult to match them and then RUS put in a strong lap and made it even harder. I think the Mercs just got the most out of the tires compared to RBR and MCL. Max had been saving tires in sector 1 on every lap, but Merc pace forced him into pushing there on his final run.
And that's precisely what I think will be their undoing in the race: they'll overheat and degrade their tires much faster than Max and the McLarens. That's why I'm confident in Max's chances of winning. It'll be between him and Oscar for the win
Yeah, I also don't think Max needs to take full risk at T1. Race is long, with potential SCs and red flags and presumably better wear for Max. There will be other opportunities.
Also Max is still on the edge with penalty points for an other 3 or so races, so he shouldn't get into borderline situations
I don't necessarily think Mercedes has the better car here either, it's just that George was really on it, especially on Q3. You may have whatever opinions for him and his behaviour, but I don't think many can really discredit his pace, especially on saturdays. The man can hook up some impressive laps sometimes.
With that being said, Singapore is rather impossible to overtake on, so it's going to be down to strategy and/or luck today. Tire wear won't be that big of an issue in my opinion, unless they (Mercedes) fall completely off the cliff after 10 laps like in 2013.
And that's precisely what I think will be their undoing in the race: they'll overheat and degrade their tires much faster than Max and the McLarens. That's why I'm confident in Max's chances of winning. It'll be between him and Oscar for the win
Nothing is stopping Russell from doing a Sainz 2023 special and winning the race. Mercedes getting better traction out of these corners with a less loaded RW says quite a lot about how they could perform today. Besides, even if the deg is higher, George will have the straight line speed to defend. That said, I do hope Max gets P1 at the race start because it's good for the WDC.
It underlines the upward trend – one that even Verstappen himself couldn’t have imagined back in Zandvoort. “Nobody expected this to be honest. But of course, there are reasons why things are suddenly working better now. I just can’t say what those reasons are,” he added with a smile.
One of the reasons is believed to be the new floor that Red Bull introduced in Monza. It has helped, but Verstappen made clear during his Dutch media session in the Singapore paddock that it’s not the main factor.
“Well, everything helps, of course, but that’s not the full reason,” he explained. Asked what is the most important factor, Verstappen replied: “A different philosophy.”
It refers to a new working approach – one that seems to be paying off in recent weekends. Verstappen doesn’t want to go into details, but Red Bull has not needed to completely overhaul the car set-up after Friday, something that was often the case earlier this season. “That’s correct. Now we can fine-tune the car more throughout the weekend, and that’s the most important thing.”
This naturally raises another key question: has this potential been in the car all along? It’s a “what if” scenario that ultimately changes nothing in the standings, but it’s still an intriguing one as it suggests that the RB21 might not have been as bad as many thought. Instead, maybe Red Bull just wasn't able to unlock its performance consistently.
When asked about that theory by Motorsport.com, Verstappen confirmed it for the first time: “That’s pretty clear, yes. But there’s nothing we can do about that now.”
He admitted that, with the lessons Red Bull has learned in recent weeks, the team could have extracted more from its 2025 challenger earlier in the year. “At the start of the season, for sure – absolutely,” Verstappen admitted.
(I guess probably some buggy setting in their sim correlations, which got likely uncovered by Mekies asking "but what about X, I found the same in vcarb's sim setup")
