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Max Verstappen left a distraught message on the team radio during the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, claiming that everything was working against him during the race. The Dutchman started the race on soft tires but was unable to overtake pole sitter George Russell on the race start.
Verstappen would have been happy to have outqualified both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris for the Singapore GP, but also disappointed that he missed out on pole position to George Russell. The reigning world champion was also unable to make any move on the race start on Sunday, as the #63 Mercedes checked out after a solid start.
Verstappen was the first of the front-runners to pit, as he got rid of his soft tires for hards on lap 20. After coming out, his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, told him to start pushing, but the driver sent a distraught message in reply:
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"I'll try mate but everything is working against me this race."
Verstappen had also complained about the downshifts on his RB21 earlier in the race, that has been pretty common from the driver's side this whole season. His hopes of the world championship were reignited after he won the previous two races in Monza and Baku.
The 4x world champion needs to take significant chunks out of the advantage of both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris's points tally at all remaining events to stay in the race.
While the Red Bull man is still running in P2 at the time of writing, and is ahead of the McLaren pair, he would have hoped to compete more closely with George Russell for P1 in the first stint of the race.
Max Verstappen not using the newly introduced cooling vest at Singapore GP
Max Verstappen had announced that he would not be using the newly introduced cooling vests, simply claiming that it has to be the driver's decision to wear them or not. The FIA has launched the new vest for all drivers at the Singapore GP to help with the harsh temperatures at Marina Bay.
After qualifying on Saturday, Verstappen explained how he did not intend to use the new invention.
"I haven't used the vest. I'm also not intending to use it. Because I feel like this needs to be the driver's choice," said Verstappen, via The BBC.
"From the FIA side, they will always throw it on safety. But then we can talk about a lot of stuff that can be improved on safety, including pit entries in certain places. I think that has a bit more priority than a vest in the car," he added.
Max Verstappen said that he simply did not like the vest and won't use them. He added that he felt uncomfortable with the vest on due to the cramped nature of the F1 cockpit.
