Verstappen says Red Bull has no excuse for poor starts

Asked after Singapore qualifying whether Red Bull’s hardware could explain its starts relative to Racing Bulls, Max Verstappen replied: “The engines are exactly the same. Everything is the same, so there is no excuse.”

On the follow-up about software or the driver, he said: “It’s all the same.”

After the Sprint earlier that day, Verstappen had called the start “horrendous again”, said Red Bull had limitations to address and said Racing Bulls sometimes started better. He had already warned: “If you have something like that tomorrow, that’s your race over if nothing crazy happens.”