Max Verstappen would have claimed an even more dominant victory at the Singapore Grand Prix had he been driving a Ferrari, according to Red Bull Formula 1 team-mate Isack Hadjar.
Four-time world champion Verstappen has secured back-to-back commanding victories in Malaysia and Singapore heading into this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, but Hadjar has argued that Red Bull does not currently have the fastest car in F1.
Despite Verstappen’s dominant performance across the entire weekend in Singapore, Hadjar believes the Dutchman would have won by a bigger margin had he been driving a Ferrari.
“I don't think we have the fastest car,” Hadjar said in Thursday in Austin. “I think the car is still very hard to drive. In Malaysia, it was dominant, but I don't think in Singapore it was the fastest car.
Verstappen crushed his opponents in Singapore
“That's what I believe. I think if you put Max in the Ferrari, he would have won the race with more margin. So that's my opinion. In Singapore, I think [Ferrari] was the fastest car.
“He [Verstappen] qualified on pole by half a tenth. Ferrari didn’t have new tyres in the race, not on the soft, so this has an effect as well. He put all the chances on his side, he made the difference in Q3 and that was enough.”
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri also weighed in on Red Bull’s strong performance at the last two races when asked if he thinks the former world champions are the current benchmark.
“I think Red Bull definitely took a pretty big step forward over the last triple header,” the Australian said. “Whatever upgrades they put on the car in Baku were very strong - obviously they had a double podium there, and then won the next two races with Max.
“It wasn’t a surprise that Ferrari were very strong in Singapore. On the data analysis, they’re always the joint-quickest or outright quickest in basically every corner this year, but they lose on all the straights – whether that’s from drag, from power, I don’t know.
Hadjar has dismissed suggestions Red Bull has the fastest car
“We certainly expected Ferrari to be the benchmark in Singapore, but we’ve expected them to be the benchmark at other circuits and it’s not turned out to be the case. I think they're very strong.
“Clearly the Red Bull was very strong. Both are stronger than us, for sure. I think over the last few weeks, Red Bull have definitely become the most consistently quick car, but I think each weekend the challenges are rotating.”
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