Friday running at the 2026 Monaco GP proved encouraging for Red Bull, particularly in terms of pace, as they emerged as early rivals to the pacesetting Ferraris.
Max Verstappen in particular had a productive day, finishing third in both practice sessions, and even reducing the deficit to Ferrari from FP1 to FP2 as he showcased Red Bull’s speed around the circuit.
Asked whether these consecutive fast laps came with a performance cost from the power unit, Red Bull’s chief engineer, Paul Monaghan, insisted that such an approach was “clearly” possible.
“So it depends how you approach the first lap and then what you do each time,” he explained.
“If we maybe look at it a different way, rather than saying is there an engine penalty from doing that type of running, our currency is lap time.
“We need the quickest lap on the board that we can get. And if doing that produces the quickest lap time on the board, whether there’s an engine penalty or not, it doesn’t actually matter.
That’s the fastest way we can get our car to go around the lap. That’s the simplest way to look at it, perhaps.”
Monaghan acknowledged that setting a competitive qualifying lap in Monaco is tricky, particularly given the traffic issues that were already apparent during running on Friday.
“All sorts of things have to come together,” he said.
“I would say Q1 you need space and not get held up, which here looking at FP2, it was chaotic. So by the time we reach Q3, touch wood that we do, then you just need the quickest lap that we can do, tyres in the window, good lap, good car balance.
“Let’s see how we get on.”
Monaghan expects tight battle for Monaco GP pole
Though pleased with the pace demonstrated by Red Bull, Monaghan stressed that the pecking order for the Monaco GP is too close to call after FP2, adding that he expects a close fight for the top positions in qualifying.
He pointed out that a number of potential contenders failed to record representative laps, highlighting Lando Norris’ battery-related troubles in the afternoon session. The Mercedes drivers were not in the mix on Friday, but Monaghan stated he’s not counting them out just yet.
“It’s FP2,” he said.
“I’m sure if you pulled Max up here and said ‘can you go faster’, he’d say ‘of course.’ The question is by how much and then what can Charles [Leclerc] do, what can Lewis [Hamilton] do?
“I don’t suppose Kimi [Antonelli] and George [Russell] are going to give us an easy time. I dare say Isack [Hadjar] will want a piece of the action. Oscar [Piastri] hasn’t been mentioned yet.
“Lando [Norris] didn’t get far. It’s going to be squeaky tight tomorrow, isn’t it? So everybody’s going to be fast.
“If the Ferrari’s a bit quicker than us, we’ve got to do a little bit better job tonight. We’ll be faster than them tomorrow. We’ll find out, won’t we?”
Verstappen reported issues relating to energy release during the first practice session, but Red Bull appeared satisfied that the problem had not significantly affected the team’s overall programme by the end of Friday.
Hadjar praises Red Bull mechanics for swift fix after FP1 crash
The 21-year-old suffered a hefty crash at the swimming pool chicane during morning running, but was back on track for FP2.
“The boys worked really quite hard,” Monaghan said when asked about the swift repair job.
“The nice thing was car #3 didn’t need that much doing to it, so it would have been a little bit of resource across, which is wonderful teamwork. We got Isack out and running and his confidence is up. He seemed much, much happier after FP2 than he did after FP1, where obviously his confidence had a bit of a dent.
“He’ll be fine tomorrow, don’t worry. The boys did a good job. It’s nice and satisfying to see it go out 10-15 minutes into the session. That was quite impressive. Let’s hope we don’t do it again.
“We cut a few corners, but nothing of any consequence, and we can tidy ourselves up tonight.”
Hadjar gave full credit to the Red Bull mechanics, saying, “They did a very good job.
“I knew after the crash it would be difficult to get back out, but they did a great job so that was impressive.
“Obviously I didn’t want to repeat any mistakes, I wanted to build the confidence back up again. We missed a bit of the early laps and to be honest it came right at the very end. I had a better feeling in the car but still not exploring all the limits.
“There’s a lot of work to do.”
RB22 suits slow speed circuits
Hadjar admitted he doesn’t believe the Monaco GP will be an “equaliser” under the 2026 regulations, but confirmed Red Bull tends to perform better at slow speed circuits this season.
“I don’t think it’s really an equaliser, but I think we know it’s a track that suits our speed range,” he said.
“Slow speed circuits so far have been pretty good for us, not so much the high speed. It’s definitely good, you can see Max is completely up there and we have a good opportunity.”
