F1 pundit does not buy Red Bull and Max Verstappen's struggles after a challenging first day in Singapore

F1 pundit Danica Patrick does not believe there is going to be a performance dip from Max Verstappen and Red Bull at the 2023 F1 Singapore GP.

The Dutchman did not look his strongest during the first two practice sessions around the Marina Bay circuit. He ended up in P3 and P8 in both sessions, respectively.

Hence, there were many questions around Red Bull and whether Max Verstappen's unprecedented winning streak would finally be broken.

Speaking to Sky F1, however, Danica Patrick said she has stopped speculating about the downfall of a dominant team and driver just because of a few poor practice sessions.

She explained that there could even be sandbag games played by the Austrian-British team. On the other hand, she does acknowledge the possibility, mentioning how they could struggle in the Singapore GP.

“I’m not always buying every time that a team has a bad day, or even a session. Because sometimes it just all of a sudden turns the other direction.

"There’s probably games getting played, and then sometimes you just miss it. So yeah, not really counting them out. But they did come in saying it would probably be a little bit more of a struggle, and so far that’s been true…it’s only Friday,” said Danica Patrick.

Though Ferrari looked the strongest with Max Verstappen unable to top either of the two practices, the Dutchman simply cannot be ruled out. Verstappen has not won a single race in Singapore, which is quite surprising considering his dominance and tight battle with Lewis Hamilton since 2021.

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Max Verstappen admits Red Bull's struggles during practice sessions at the 2023 F1 Singapore GP

Max Verstappen was not too happy with the RB19's performance around the Marina Bay Circuit in Singapore.

The Red Bull star admitted that he was struggling quite a lot in terms of the car's balance. Though his side of the garage tried to tweak the car in the second practice session, issues were only partially resolved. F1 quoted him as saying:

"We’re just struggling a lot with the balance of the car. We tried quite a few things in FP2; some worked, some didn’t. We never really got the car together so it’s quite a few things to figure out tonight."

Max Verstappen is currently leading the drivers' championship table with 364 points and has won 10 consecutive races. Despite his extraordinary dominance in 2023, there is a small chance that his race-winning streak could finally end in the Singapore GP.