Hands stretched forward. Max Verstappen didn’t actually make such a gesture upon arriving in Monte Carlo, host of this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, but his words effectively did just that.
In short, Max is still enjoying his Imola win, which came after a thrilling weekend, but in Monaco his confidence is much lower. According to him, the RB21 is very similar to last year’s car and therefore will likely struggle on kerbs and bumps along the Principality’s harbor-side track.
Is it mind games or genuine concern about not being competitive enough to fight McLaren? Only the track will provide the answer. In the meantime, Max is cautious: there’s always time to raise expectations.
“Monaco is not an ideal track for us,” said the four-time Red Bull world champion ahead of the Monaco weekend. “But we’ll try to be more competitive than in the past. It’s definitely not going to be one of our favorite tracks, one where we can show our full potential. I think everyone knows that. This season has shown that we’re competitive whenever we go to high-speed corners. But on other types, we struggle more.”
“When I think of last year’s car, I don’t feel it’s that different from the current one. So we’re likely to struggle again on kerbs and bumps. We’re trying to find some setup solutions to at least make the car more drivable on tracks like Monaco.”
The new components that debuted in Imola helped both him and the RB21 secure their second win of the season. But Monte Carlo has a very different character compared to Imola. It’s all slow corners. And that’s where Max Verstappen’s concern becomes even more apparent.
“In Imola, the upgrades did their job, but I also think the team made a big setup step from Friday to Saturday. The updates made the car feel quite different, but in terms of outright performance, I don’t think it was a huge change.”
“It’s hard to say how the updates will perform in low-speed corners. It’s hard to tell even for me. If we look at Imola, we can see that in slow corners we weren’t the strongest on track. We know this track doesn’t suit the RB21’s characteristics well, and I don’t think that has changed from previous years.”
When asked whether he sees himself in the top 3 at the end of qualifying, Verstappen chose not to give a definitive answer. However, he emphasized the RB21’s potential difficulties and how last year he had to drive on the limit, even making small but decisive mistakes in qualifying.
“At the moment, it’s hard to say if I’ll be in the top 3 after qualifying. We have to wait and see how we start the weekend, how the car feels. It certainly won’t be easy. Last year my first qualifying lap was good, but on the second attempt I lost the car slightly in turn 1. But that’s what happens when you push to the limit.”
Leave a Reply