Max Verstappen’s victory around his home circuit of Zandvoort had him poised to become the first driver to win 10 grands prix in a row the following week at Monza, to put him clear of previous record holders Sebastian Vettel and Alberto Ascari.
When he duly delivered that Italian victory after patiently applying the pressure to Carlos Sainz’s pole-setting Ferrari until its tyres began to fade, the next statistical benchmark in the sights of Verstappen and Red Bull was to make it a seasonal clean sweep for the team. Given the superiority of the Red Bull/Verstappen partnership in the year to date, it actually felt more than feasible; it looked likely.
Yet that all came crashing down at the very next race, Singapore, where neither Red Bull could even make it to the Q3 stage of qualifying, Verstappen and Sergio Pérez wrestling with oversteer, poor traction and lack of tyre temperature. Given that this had coincided with a stricter application of Technical directives 18 and 39 (concerning flexibility of bodywork and floor respectively), there was naturally a temptation to link the two
