Singapore setback pushed Verstappen to new heights - Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes the failure to win the Singapore Grand Prix hurt Max Verstappen but also redoubled his determination, while also demonstrating how difficult it is to be competitive at every race in modern-day Formula 1.

Singapore was the only race that Red Bull failed to win in 2023, with the night race in September bringing to an end the team’s hopes of completing an unprecedented clean sweep. Verstappen had won 10 in a row heading to Singapore and was also victorious in the seven rounds that followed, but Horner says it had a clear impact on the world champion.

More Formula 1

Norris believes F1 is not too far from ‘a really exciting era’

McLaren drivers still sure their MCL40 is a winner

Herta drawing strength from paddock welcome as he grapples with a new racing paradigm in F2

“I think that race just brings everything into reality, that I think quite often we made winning look easy this year,” Horner said. “Winning is never easy. And I think that race just brought it home, that if you miss the target, it’s small margins.

“I think just setup-wise, we arrived with a setup that our simulation tools had led us down the route of, and it just didn’t work on that circuit, on that day, particularly in qualifying. In the race the pace started to come back to us, but I think if we’d known what we knew after the event going into the event, we would have been in a much more competitive position.

"What was interesting for me most of all out of that event was how much... not frustration, but it hurt Max not winning that event. By the time he arrived in Japan, he was so motivated -- probably the most motivated I’ve seen him over the last few years -- to really lay a marker down in Suzuka.

“I traveled with him from Tokyo to Suzuka, and he said, 'I’m going to win this race by 20 seconds.’ His very first lap in practice on a set of hard tires was just stunning. It was 2.5 seconds quicker than anybody else. I think his first flying lap would have put him third in that session.

“It was an insane performance all weekend. And he won the race by 19.4 seconds, and I said to him, as we won the constructors’ that day, ‘Well, you nearly made the 20 seconds.’ He said, ‘I had a blue flag, it cost me half a second on that last lap!’ Honestly, that was one of the strongest displays I’ve ever seen from a driver on that weekend.”

As well as Singapore showing how hard Red Bull had to work to maximize each weekend, Horner believes it also provides a bit of context into Verstappen’s level of performance.

“It’s been a massive, massive year. I think particularly for Max, when you look back at the season that he’s had, particularly across the different challenges of the different venues, circuits, conditions, he’s been just phenomenal this year. I think that it’s sometimes easy to understate what he’s achieved, which has been nothing short of outstanding.”