Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen qualified P5 at the Monaco GP on Saturday afternoon. The Dutch driver out-qualified his teammate Yuki Tsunoda by six tenths, maintaining his dominant qualifying head-to-head record over his Red Bull teammates this season. Verstappen believes he extracted everything he could in this session.
Verstappen and Red Bull recognize exactly what they need to improve on
In his post-qualifying interview in the print media pen, Verstappen was quite frank about where the RB21 must improve around the Circuit de Monaco going into this year’s Monaco GP. Verstappen pointed to issues in sector two, particularly in the slow corners.
When asked if he was potentially in the running for pole on Saturday, Verstappen denied this and pointed to some major weaknesses in the car.
“No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Yeah, I think already in FP3 we had some limitations, but then in qualifying I think it was quite clear that sector 2 was just very poor. We just couldn’t ride the curves and all the compressions. They were just not, yeah, not really good for us.
“We’re just weak in low speed and then also where you have to take curves and the capper drops away from you. That’s why our car doesn’t like that. It’s never liked it, it still doesn’t like it.”
The RB21 has been temperamental at best throughout the season so far, with both Liam Lawson and the more experienced Yuki Tsunoda struggling to find pace. Max Verstappen, however, has proven his mettle by bringing home two race wins in Japan and Imola despite the McLaren’s pace and consistency.
The balance of the car has been a point of frustration for Verstappen and his Red Bull team, an issue that has continued into this weekend at the Monaco GP. When asked about the status of the balance following Friday and Saturday’s sessions, Verstappen reported a slight improvement.
“Yeah, balance is a little bit better, but just not enough for kind of a grip.”
On a street circuit like Monaco, grip is exceptionally important due to the uneven and slippery surface. Struggling to find grip is a huge blow to a driver’s confidence in the car, not to mention devastating to one’s lap time, as Verstappen stated in his interview.
“We just didn’t have the grip. So when you don’t have the grip around here, you can’t fully extract everything out of it. So then it doesn’t matter if it’s three tenths, four tenths, seven tenths. You’re just not fast enough.”
All eyes are on the most famous race on the F1 calender on Sunday
Due to the circuit’s lack of significant passing opportunities, which is exaggerated by the ever-growing size of the cars, Red Bull is going to need a miracle to pull off a victory on Sunday. However, this year’s race is incorporating a new race regulation that mandates two pit stops. This will alter teams’ strategies naturally and open new opportunities for drivers like Max Verstappen to capitalize on.
Verstappen’s race craft has always been second-to-none, therefore we may see a more impressive showing in the Monaco GP itself. Grand Prix conditions may very well suit the Red Bull and put Max Verstappen in the position to capitalize on a well-timed caution or contrarian strategy call.
“I mean, of course, in the race, I won’t really try to flat out, so we might need to get lucky with the strategy call, but we also know, of course, that normally it’s quite a long race, but of course, with two stops, it might make it a little bit more interesting.”
The pace of the McLarens will be very difficult to overcome, but in a race like the Monaco GP, there is still all to play for on Sunday.
