Max Verstappen says Red Bull will struggle to fight for victory in Monaco this weekend as the street circuit plays into inherent weaknesses with their car.
The world champion ended Friday’s day of practice fourth-fastest, half a second off the best lap from Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari – one of three teams who produced laps quicker than Red Bull.
Verstappen fought with his car across both sessions as he struggled for balance around the slow, high-downforce circuit. He admitted he was not entirely sure what was causing the problems with the handling of his RB20.
“I don’t think I even can describe what is actually going on,” he told the official F1 channel. “It was just very difficult.
“It’s not something that I didn’t expect, but it’s definitely at the higher end of, let’s say, the worst possible outcome of the weekend so far. It’s just very difficult.
“There are a lot of bumps and kerbs and camber changes as well in the track and, for us, that is basically impossible to take. Every time that we go over it, we lose a lot of lap time just because the car doesn’t ride it well. That is definitely hampering us at the moment to go faster. There’s also, I think, no real clear direction or solution for the weekend, to try and solve something like that.”
The championship leader was in a similar position last Friday after the opening day of practice in Imola, unhappy with the balance of his car. However, he recovered to take pole position on Saturday before holding off Lando Norris in the race to win by under a second. This weekend in Monaco, Verstappen does not expect to be able to salvage his prospects in a similar fashion.
“Imola was completely different,” he said. “Also different issues that you can solve with set-up.
“These kind of things, you cannot solve with set-up, because that’s how the car is made and designed and these kind of things you cannot change overnight. So we are stuck with that. We’ll try to make it a little bit better, but I don’t expect any miracles.”
Asked whether he felt it would be possible to contend for pole position in Saturday’s crucial qualifying session, Verstappen said he would be surprised to find a solution to his concerns with the Red Bull around Monaco by tomorrow.
“I’m not even thinking about that for tomorrow,” he said. “I just want to try and solve the issues that we have, try to make it a little bit more driveable. And then we’ll see where we end up. But I don’t expect any miracles.”
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2024 Monaco Grand Prix
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