Max Verstappen believes Red Bull’s woes in qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix show that its weakness riding kerbs has been “found out” now rivals have caught up.
The Dutchman was open heading into the weekend that he expected the unique circuit characteristics present at Monte Carlo to make Red Bull even more vulnerable.
Verstappen struggled throughout practice but appeared in more competitive shape in the nascent stages of qualifying and a genuine contender to claim pole position.
However, Verstappen mustered sixth overall as a brush with the barrier at Turn 1 curtailed his final attempt, with team-mate Sergio Perez having been eliminated in Q1.
“I mean I felt quite comfortable, in terms of medium to high speed the car is quite quick but everywhere there is bumps it was just jumping around a lot,” he reviewed.
“So I’m driving around that, trying to optimise everything, really difficult to control, so I was surprised for most of qualifying that we were quite close.
“But I guess some didn’t nail the lap. It’s always if if if, I’m not disappointed with my laps or trying to improve more, just look at where we are, we are P18 and P6.
“Checo is very good around a street circuit, he comes alive there, I think it already says enough that he’s in that position, so I cannot be disappointed with P6 in that sense.”
Verstappen revealed that he was exhausting multiple avenues on the set-up front throughout the weekend but to no avail as the kerbs continued to unsettle his RB20.
“Yeah, I mean we tried a lot of things on the car, literally nothing made it better, so you’re just stuck,” he explained. “Not much you can do.
“We really tried to optimise it but at one point when you’re stuck with that… you can see in the second sector we are so bad.
“Just because I can’t touch any kerbs as it just upsets the car too much, just lose a lot of lap time and incredibly difficult.
“I tried [to go softer on the suspension], we went soft, stiff, everything, but the car is like a go-kart, it’s like I’m running without suspension,” he continued.
“It’s jumping around a lot, not absorbing kerb strikes or bumps or camber changes, the last corner I think the amount of times I just jumped almost into the wall is incredible.”
Verstappen contended that Red Bull has been combating the same hitch throughout this regulation period, with the team’s dominance doing enough to cover the issue.
But with Ferrari and McLaren closing up on the Austrian outfit this term, the three-time champion has accepted that Red Bull’s glaring shortfall has since been exposed.
“It’s also not something new, I mean we’ve had this problem since 2022,” he expanded.
“Of course, for the last years we had a car advantage and it gets masked a little bit as we gain a bit in the corners where the kerbs and the bumps are the limitations.
“But with everyone catching up naturally when you’re not improving your weakest point you get found out and that’s what happened this weekend.”
Asked what’s possible for the race tomorrow, Verstappen, a two-time race winner in Monaco, responded: “F*** knows! I mean I’m pushing flat out.
“Yeah, the car is just super tricky, went into Turn 1, suddenly I go over the bumps and it just snaps on you.
“There’s nothing that was a big mistake but the car is literally on an ice edge to drive, it is what it is.”
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