Max Verstappen has voiced his concerns over the “fundamental” problems plaguing Red Bull Racing during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, revealing that these issues are being masked by the team’s car advantage from 2022.
According to Verstappen, Red Bull’s car struggles with bumps and kerbs, making it behave more like a “go-kart” than a high performance F1 car. Red Bull’s struggles have continued since the start of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, continuing a difficult period for a team that has been dominant in recent years. It follows a near defeat at Imola, where Verstappen narrowly missed out on a victory at the hands of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had beaten him in Miami.
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Longstanding issues with Red Bull car design
Verstappen made it clear that Red Bull is not dealing with a new problem. Instead, it’s an issue that dates back to the introduction of the ground effect cars, which was initially masked by the team’s significant car advantage.
“It’s like I’m driving without suspension,” explained Verstappen.
“The car is bouncing around a lot, not absorbing kerbs, bumps or camber changes. In the last corner, the number of times I almost hit the wall is unbelievable. We’ve been having this problem since 2022. For the last two years, our car advantage has masked it. But now that everyone is catching up, our weaknesses are being exposed…”
He added that the car’s behaviour in Monaco was reminiscent of its performance in the previous two years, although the team’s overall advantage had previously allowed them to secure victories – first with teammate Sergio Perez and then with Verstappen in 2023.
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Close qualifying performance
Despite the car’s problems, Verstappen was “surprised” to be close to the front runners in qualifying. After making a mistake on his final lap, he was still less than three-tenths of a second off pole position, finishing sixth on the grid.
“F*** knows,” Verstappen replied when asked where he would have been had he not made the mistake on the final lap.
“I’m pushing flat out. The car is just super tricky. In Turn 1 it suddenly goes over the bumps. There was no big mistake. The car is literally on a knife edge to drive.”
When asked if the RB20 was supposed to solve these problems, Verstappen replied, “Yeah, supposedly, but it didn’t happen.”
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Red Bull’s struggle to understand
Verstappen described the situation as a “fundamental problem” that “can’t be fixed in weeks”. Asked if it could be resolved this season, he was uncertain.
“First of all, we need to understand what it is, and we don’t know,” Verstappen admitted.
“We’ll work hard to identify the problem and try to fix it, but I don’t know if we can do it this year or if we have to wait for next year. If we knew, we would have fixed it by now. Obviously, we don’t.”
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Different problems at different races
Monaco marks the third consecutive difficult weekend for Red Bull, but Verstappen noted that each weekend has been marred by different problems.
“Probably in Miami we didn’t get the balance right and maybe the tyres,” he explained. “At Imola we managed to turn things around, but we weren’t on top of the tyres, especially the hard ones. Overall, our performance was OK, but I knew Monaco would be one of our toughest weekends with everyone catching up.”
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Future challenges and title prospects
Verstappen conceded that Monaco may have been the worst manifestation of Red Bull’s problems, but anticipated difficulties at other circuits as well.
“Some tracks without bumps still require you to drive on kerbs,” he said. “There are definitely tracks on the calendar that aren’t ideal for us, but there are also tracks that suit our car better. We know where we need to improve. If we can fix that one area, our car will be better at every track.”
As for the championship race, Verstappen, who holds a 48-point lead over Monaco GP pole sitter Charles Leclerc, appeared unperturbed by the potential impact of a bad race.
“I don’t even think about it,” said Verstappen. “The title race is long. Anything can happen. One bad race won’t change the title. To win a title you have to be consistent and that’s what we have to aim for.”
This latest insight from Verstappen underlines the challenge facing Red Bull as they strive to maintain their dominance amid growing competition and technical challenges. Certainly, the publicly spoken discontent with the Red Bull car by Verstappen adds further weight to his management’s rumoured discussions with other teams, potentially cutting short the Dutchman’s contract with Red Bull Racing.
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The father of the current Formula One champion, Jos Verstappen, is once again making waves as he was pictured arriving in Monaco late yesterday. The journeyman F1 driver is the second most successful Dutch competitor the sport has seen, only outranked by his son. Jos competed in 107 Grand Prix, achieved two podiums as his best results, and racked up a total of 17 championship points (117 in the modern system) with a highest finishing slot of 6th at the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix.
Jos is the second most successful Dutch driver in F1, out ranked only by his son, but his biggest claim to fame came at the 1994 German Grand Prix when during a pit stop a refuelling rig fault caused a leak with the result his car was engulfed in flames for several seconds. As is the case with F1 drivers, Jos had opened his visor for some…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
