Max Verstappen believes that Red Bull’s weakness being exposed represented a single positive it could salvage from a tough Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix weekend.
Verstappen had expected that the unique Monte Carlo circuit characteristics would present Red Bull with a challenge, but the team fared even worse than anticipated.
The Dutchman bemoaned his Red Bull RB20 being unable to attack the various kerbs and bumps that align the Monaco streets as the Ferrari and McLaren cars could.
Having qualified sixth – the position where he would also finish – Verstappen revealed the issue had been prevalent since 2022 but Red Bull’s dominance had hidden it.
While he saw his lead in the standings cut to 31 points, Verstappen is optimistic Red Bull will unlock more potential from its car providing it can resolve the hindrance.
“Overall it has been a really bad weekend for us,” Verstappen conceded.
“I guess the only positive out of it is we really know what our weakness is and if we can improve that by only a little bit we will gain a lot of lap time.
“There is a lot of room for improvement and if we can sort that out then our car really comes alive again.”
Verstappen has admitted the problem constitutes longer than a short-term fix and could continue to harm Red Bull on tracks with bumps, like Montreal next time out.
Asked where the weakness could bite Red Bull again, Verstappen responded: “Any track that is bumpy or has kerbs, or you have to ride a lot of kerbs.
“So the street circuits will probably be a little bit tricky but hopefully by then we have a little bit of understanding of what is going on.”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner has insisted the side will require Sergio Perez to rebound from his Q1 elimination in Monaco amid Ferrari and McLaren’s growing threat.
Verstappen, though, has determined that the Austrian squad’s fixation should be on acquiring a grasp on the reason behind the car being resistant to kerbs and bumps.
Asked whether he needed Perez to be providing assistance at the sharp end, Verstappen replied: “First of all, I think we need to understand our problems.
“I don’t even want to think about that yet. We still have a great car but we know we have limitations and that is priority number one.”
Red Bull last struggled to this extent on another street venue in Singapore the previous September, but Verstappen thinks it would be premature to draw comparisons.
“I think both of them were pretty bad,” he said when comparing Singapore to now. “Like I said we don’t know what the issue is yet so we need to understand that first.”
Verstappen also denied this would be a wake-up call to Red Bull amid his adamance that the team is striving to settle the recurring snag limiting its competitiveness.
“I think we take everything very seriously, but sometimes things are not very easy to fix, but we are working flat-out on it,” he asserted.
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