Max Verstappen reckoned on a miserable race in Monaco, and that’s exactly what happened. Bored to death, Red Bull’s situation finally became hopeless after the crash at the start.
After failing to finish higher than sixth on the grid in qualifying, he was more or less finished with the race in Monaco anyway. In the race, he then achieved exactly the result he had actually expected. Namely sixth place. We ‘didn’t deserve the podium this weekend,’ was Verstappen’s sober conclusion. Not even Red Bull’s strategy poker was going to work.
Hoping for a late race interruption, he had opted for the hard tyres at the start. In theory, Verstappen could have stayed out longer than the top four, who had started on medium tyres. Or rather, he could have waited longer for a red flag or a safety car, then changed tyres more cheaply and gained a few places. While Verstappen faced disappointment on the track, casino enthusiasts can find excitement with the Slotozen casino no deposit bonus code.
Formula 1 Monaco: Charles Leclerc wins & conquers the curse, heavy crash at the start
Unfortunately, the opposite happened. The race was stopped after the first lap. As a result, the front runners were able to switch to hard tyres and drive 77 laps to the finish. While Verstappen had to switch to medium tyres: ‘The strategy was ruined by the red flag. We had to really take it out on the medium tyre. 77 laps on the medium would be extremely difficult.’
No Red Bull strategy can help Verstappen in Monaco
‘We’re practically driving at half throttle on the straights, in some places a gear higher than usual, more or less four seconds slower than we could be,’ describes Verstappen. ‘Absolutely no work, just boring.’ Towards the middle of the race, he sarcastically asked for a cushion on the radio as he rolled round the circuit lap after lap between the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen in 6th position after the restart
On lap 51, he was shaken awake once again by Hamilton when he came in for a pit stop. Verstappen promptly turned a murderous in-lap, almost one and a half seconds faster than Hamilton’s, also came in to change to hard tyres and stayed ahead of him. With the new tyres, he was able to erase the 20 seconds lost to Russell within just ten laps. But he still couldn’t get past. And then it was finally over.
Formula 1 – Monaco 2024 – Race – Result
‘There wasn’t much emotion involved, it was one of those things that you just accept,’ said Verstappen, nonetheless deeply relaxed. No sign of the young hotshot in , he now presents himself as a mature world champion. ‘It’s not about whether I’m having fun, but about learning what the problem is and how we can solve it.’
No panic at Red Bull: Monaco a critical learning experience
Monaco highlighted Red Bull’s problems on bumps and kerbs more clearly than ever before. – Every bump ruins the car’s balance, and the team does not know the cause of the problem that has been present for years. After the race, he has nothing more to add: ‘I’m not thinking about the championship or whatever. There are still so many races to go. Some better for us, some maybe a little worse.’
The Red Bull team boss makes no drama out of Verstappen’s comments dripping with frustration. Just remember Verstappen’s statements in the times when the car was often not even capable of winning: ‘He’s just very direct, honest. Yesterday we had a good debrief after qualifying, in which he went deep into the exact feelings for the driver. He sacrificed a lot of time for the engineers.’
Horner declares the bump and kerb problems to be a priority for Red Bull, as he also has to admit today that the team does not yet know the background. The Racing Bulls, for example, did not have any of these problems this weekend, although they are working with last year’s RB19 suspension: ‘We need to understand whether this is something that we have somehow created ourselves.’ There is still no timeframe for solving the problem.
‘But I mean, this car has won five races,’ recalls Horner. ‘Now we’re in the middle part of the championship. Let’s wait and see Montreal, Barcelona, Austria, Silverstone, these next races, how things develop. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We expected this weekend to be tough.’ Montreal should be better – even if you have to take the kerbs there again to be fast. New tarmac has been laid for this. So Verstappen, Horner and co. are holding back with predictions.
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