A “different” Friday for Max Verstappen
This time Max Verstappen even managed to start the weekend well, only to then drive a slightly worsened car in the second free practice session on Friday in Monte Carlo. While waiting for the (usual) heavy simulator work to overturn the setup for Saturday, the reigning world champion still seemed fairly confident and not too worried about the tenth-place finish in FP2, over 0.7 seconds behind Charles Leclerc. However, according to the reigning world champion, the SF-25’s performance is real and the “big step” Ferrari has made through the streets of the Principality of Monaco will need to be taken into account.
Max Verstappen speaks
“I think FP1,” said Max Verstappen at the interview ring, “was quite positive, but then we made some changes for FP2 in order to see basically how far we could push the setup. I think in the end we went a bit too far and I couldn’t attack the corners the way I wanted to anymore. We lost a bit of rhythm and so the lap time didn’t come. I didn’t expect us to be the fastest, but obviously we can be much closer than we were in FP2.”
Ferrari favorite in Monaco?
“I’m confident,” he added, “that we can be much closer. The Ferraris? Once again here they seem to be going very, very fast. The McLaren cars were fairly close, but if we look at the picture across the whole season, I think the Ferraris have made a big step forward here.”
There was also a remark about the heavy traffic on track, which he had also complained about over the radio during the session: “Monte Carlo is always tricky with traffic, but I think there were two dangerous situations today. It’s not ideal. I know it’s free practice, but if something isn’t done quickly, we risk having a major crash.”
“But luckily everything went well,” Max Verstappen concluded.
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