Yahoo Autos I can’t be disappointed in P6 with Perez 18th – Verstappen
Max Verstappen says he can’t be disappointed with a top-six starting position at the Monaco Grand Prix given the fact his teammate Sergio Perez is 18th on the grid.
Perez dropped out in Q1 as Red Bull’s struggles in Monaco really came to the fore in qualifying, the Mexican just over half a second off the fastest time but ahead of only the two Stake cars. Verstappen remained in the mix for pole position throughout until the final run in Q3 when he aborted after catching a slide at the first corner, and ended up on the third row.
“I’m pushing flat out,” said Verstappen (pictured at left, above, with Perez and safety car driver Bernd Maylander). “The car is just super tricky — went into Turn 1, suddenly I go over the bumps and it just snaps on you. There’s nothing that was a big mistake but the car is literally on a knife’s edge to drive.
“I mean, I felt quite comfortable, in terms of, I would say medium to high speed the car is quite quick. But everywhere there is bumps it was just jumping around a lot, so I’m driving around that, trying to optimize everything.
“It’s really difficult to control, so I was surprised for most of qualifying that we were quite close but I guess some (drivers) didn’t nail the lap or whatever. It’s always ‘if, if, if.’ I’m not disappointed with my laps or trying to improve more — just look at where we are, we are P18 and P6.
“Normally Checo is very good around a street circuit — he really comes alive there, I think it already says enough that he’s in that position, so I cannot be disappointed with P6 in that sense.”
Verstappen says the problem Red Bull has is an inability for its car to handle bumps and curbs, with Monaco placing an emphasis on those aspects.
“We tried a lot of things on the car, literally nothing made it better, so you’re just stuck,” he said. “Not much you can do. You can see in the second sector we are so bad, just because I can’t touch any curbs as it just upsets the car too much. We just lose a lot of lap time and it’s incredibly difficult.
“I tried — we went soft, stiff, everything, but the car is like a go-kart, it’s like I’m running without suspension. It’s jumping around a lot, not absorbing any curb strikes or bumps or camber changes… The last corner I think the amount of times I just jumped almost into the wall is really incredible.
“It’s also not something new — I mean, we’ve had this problem since 2022. Of course for the last years I think we had a car advantage and it gets masked a little bit as we gain in the corners where the curbs and the bumps are not that much of a limitation, but with everyone catching up, naturally when you’re not improving your weakest point you get found out, and that’s what happened this weekend.
“It’s a fundamental problem, so it’s not something that will be fixed within weeks.”
