Max Verstappen tells Red Bull 'you can forget about that'

Max Verstappen has ruled out winning the Singapore Grand Prix, so much so that he’s not even looking forward to engaging in battles with his rivals.

Verstappen slumped to one of his worst qualifying showings of this season in Singapore where he was knocked out by the AlphaTauri of Liam Lawson, Verstappen left languishing in 11th place.

Declaring his RB19 to be “undriveable” and a “really bad car”, Verstappen is not looking forward to Sunday’s race even though he’s recovered from a worse grid slot this season.

Back at round two of the championship, he fought back from a P15 on the grid to finish second at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, although it’s fair to say his RB19 performed better on that track than it has so far at the Marina Bay circuit.

“It’s going to be a long, hard race and I hope we won’t have too many Safety Car periods so the race will be short,” he lamented.

In fact, the Red Bull driver seems so dejected by his “undriveable” RB19 that he’s not even looking forward to trying to fight his way through the field.

“Not at all,” he said of the thought of engaging in battles with his rivals. “Not after a weekend like that.”

Given his numerous problems this weekend, which included a poor rear-end, oversteer, understeer, and upshift issues, Verstappen has ruled out fighting for the race win.

“Yeah, you can forget about that,” said the 25-year-old. “You can’t pass. On other tracks, you can start last and win the race. But not here.”

That means the end of his 10-race winning streak, although the driver is rather pragmatic about the prospect of that.

“That’s part of it,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of great weekends and now I’ve had a bad one.”

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Should the 25-year-old prove to be right in his assessment, that will mean the end of his 10-race winning streak, while Sergio Perez starting P13 doesn’t bode well for Red Bull continue theirs through to 15 for the season, 16 overall.

But team boss Christian Horner isn’t as quick as his driver to write off the team’s chances.

“We haven’t seen anything like this all year and it will be very difficult for the race,” he told Sky Sports. “But of course, we’re not giving up yet, even though starting outside the top 10 is quite a task on a track where it’s very difficult to overtake.

“Maybe there’ll be a bit of rain or Safety cars that might help. In any case, we will fight until the end.”

He added: “We’ve had a great run so far, an incredible season. We’re not ready to stop now.”