“Watch Out For Them In Japan”: After First Defeat in Singapore, Max Verstappen Receives McLaren Warning as Woking Sends New Upgrades

With the Red Bulls out of the way, Lando Norris put on a brilliant performance at the Singapore GP and claimed P2 behind Carlos Sainz. With Verstappen eyeing the Japanese GP to make a grand comeback to winning ways, Alex Brundle revealed during the Post Race show that he believes that the McLaren and Norris are going to be stronger than ever in Japan.

After dominating the whole grid throughout the season, the Red Bull faltered for the first time at the Singapore GP. The RB19 simply did not have the pace and both Verstappen and Perez could not make it out of the second part of Qualifying on Saturday.

Come race day, both of the Red Bull drivers made progress but Verstappen failed to maintain his winning streak and ended up finishing P5. The team would desperately want to make a comeback when F1 heads to Japan next, however, as per Brundle, the McLaren are going to be mighty fast at Suzuka.

A potential win for McLaren at Suzuka?

Following the race, Brundle and Doohan were talking to Will Buxton regarding the brilliant race that Norris had. It was then that the F1 commentator disclosed that the Woking based outfit will be receiving new upgrades in Japan and that might enable them to fight for the win.

Brundle said, “Watch out for them in Japan when both of those cars will have the next set of upgrades.” Buxton seemed to agree to the narrative and mentioned that according to him, McLaren are going to get a victory before the end of the 2023 season.

Doohan joined in on the conversation and claimed that the McLaren would be coming to life in Japan considering the nature of the circuit. He told Buxton, “You were just talking that you think that they’re going to be fighting for a win this year, potentially it could be at Suzuka.” Meanwhile, not thinking about Suzuka, Norris was happy to discover something unusual in his car for first time.

Lando Norris is surprised by the straight line speed of his car

The upgrades that McLaren brought along with them to Singapore have definitely worked out a treat for them, as was evident by the fact that Norris admitted that his car did something unexpected during his battle with George Russell.

During the interview following the race, Norris revealed that he had almost thought that Russell was going to overtake him when he had a bad exit out of one of the corners. However, to his surprise, for the first time, his car had a better straight line speed than the Mercedes, allowing him to hold position.

If Red Bull cannot come back to winning ways in Japan, it would mean that the final part of the season will be witness to some highly exciting racing, something that the F1 world has been dying for for quite a while.