(Motorsports news) After qualifying only 11th on the grid, Max Verstappen admitted afterwards that he could “forget” fighting for victory on Sunday. In the race, he could only finish sixth when a strategy risk that saw him start on hard tyres backfired and a safety car appeared at precisely the wrong time. “I knew this day would come, so it’s fine with me,” Verstappen said after raising the flag.

“Everything has to be perfect,” Verstappen stressed. ‘Ah look how dominant they are and how easy it is,’ everyone says. “But it’s never easy, and there are a lot of details that we need to get right, and clearly this weekend we didn’t get a few things right, and then you’re on the back foot.” Prior to Singapore, Red Bull had won 14 races in a row, plus the final event of the 2022 season, breaking McLaren’s record for most consecutive wins by a team since 1988, Verstappen added.

Christian Horner, team principal, claimed that he had no remorse about the run coming to an end, and with it the chance of winning every race in the 2023 season. “We never expected it,” he replied when questioned about missing a season sweep. “I mean, there are still eight races left!” You’ve been asking me since pretty well Jeddah, and to have completed 15 races is beyond our wildest dreams.

“It’s insane for Verstappen to have won ten races in a row.” Sebastian Vettel in one of our cars accomplished it the last time. “Once again, we are tremendously happy to have the first and second most successful drivers in F1. While numbers appear to be meaningless, they are ones that we as a team are really proud of.

“And the fact that we’ve gotten this far, that we’ve broken the record held by McLaren since 1988, shows just how difficult it is to achieve the kind of dominance that we’ve achieved this year.” And that is testimony to everyone doing their part.”

Horner made it clear that constantly winning is not as easy as it appears. “To win 15 in a row is insane when you consider the variety of circuits we’ve encountered, the conditions, and so on,” he remarked. “It’s the first time we haven’t been in Q3 since, I believe, 2018, so it’s been a hell of a run for the team that we always knew would come to an end at some point.”

Also read: Verstappen claims that “everything went against us” in the F1 Singapore Grand Prix