“How the mighty have fallen”: Fans react as Red Bull axe Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez’s new looks for Singapore

F1 fans recently reacted to Red Bull scrapping its special liveries for the Singapore and US GPs due to the added weight of the paint.

The team announced a partnership with REBL CUSTMS for special liveries in March 2024, to celebrate 20 years in the sport. Fans had submitted their special liveries from which the designers chose their favorite to be applied to the RB20.

Two special liveries were set to be used in the Singapore and US GPs. Recently, however, it was announced that no unique design for the RB20 would be used since the paint used to create the patterns was adding about a kilogram of weight to the car, according to Motorsport.com.

Since weight directly affects an F1 car's on-track performance, the defending world champions decided to scrap the entire project in 2024.

Many F1 fans reacted to how the reigning champions have struggled in 2024, so much so that they had to cancel the special livery project due to weight concerns. This year, the Austrian team has faced strong competition from McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari. Astonishingly, Max Verstappen has not won a single race since June.

"How the mighty have fallen," one fan joked.

"Oh, so they’re STRUGGLING struggling," another added.

"Not a confidence inspiring statement," one chimed in.

Some people also spoke about the upcoming Singapore GP and how Red Bull could struggle on the street track. In the past the team has not performed well in Singapore, particularly because their car and setup do not fit the nature of the track.

In 2022, Sergio Perez was the first Red Bull driver to win the race in nearly a decade; the last one before that was Sebastian Vettel in 2013.

"Oh man this will be struggle weekend," a fan added.

"This weekend is going to be a whole lot of pain," another echoed.

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Max Verstappen on how Red Bull could prepare for the Singapore GP

Max Verstappen recently discussed what he and Red Bull could do to pull off a great weekend in Singapore.

As mentioned before, the Singapore GP has been one of Red Bull's weakest tracks in the recent past. In 2023, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz won the race, breaking Verstappen's winning streak.

Talking to the media after the Azerbaijan GP, Verstappen said that the team would try to work on the car setup and understand the issues better. He also touched on McLaren leading the constructors' championship and said his team would try to overtake the British team (as quoted by Motorsport.com).

"What can I do for Singapore? Well, we're trying to optimise the set-up to understand what we did wrong here. I don't think it's going to be our best track, naturally, but we'll see. It might surprise us," Verstappen said.

"It's never nice to see [McLaren leading the constructors' standings]. But the fight is not over yet. We'll try to get that back," he added.

Max Verstappen leads the drivers' championship table with 313 points, while Red Bull is in second place with 456 points. Verstappen is chased by second-placed Lando Norris (254 points), while Red Bull is chasing Norris' team, McLaren (476 points).