Max Verstappen expressed his dissatisfaction with his Red Bull RB20 during Monaco qualifying.
Max Verstappen was left unimpressed by the behaviour of his Red Bull RB20 during second practice in Monaco.
During the second practice session on Friday, Verstappen faced a challenging start to his Monaco weekend as the championship leader finished more than half a second behind the fastest time.
Max Verstappen struggles with ‘kangaroo’ Red Bull
Verstappen, after Red Bull’s decision to disregard the soft tyre in the first practice session resulting in a finish outside the top 10, began the second practice session by opting for the hard tyre.
With Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc leading the race, all attention turned towards the championship leader as he switched to the soft tyre, aiming to achieve some impressive lap times.
Verstappen, who was the fastest in the first sector, decided to ease off on his initial quick attempt before regaining his composure. However, he finished over half a second behind Leclerc, who set a time of 1:11.278, firmly establishing himself as the leader of the pack.
To make matters worse for Verstappen, he found himself not only trailing behind Leclerc but also had Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso wedged between him and the leading position.
Furthermore, the Dutch driver displayed evident dissatisfaction with the performance of his vehicle, expressing his discontent regarding the subpar ride quality via team radio. As the issue persisted, Verstappen’s frustration grew, prompting him to disclose the situation over the radio.
He informed race engineer Gianpiero ‘GP’ Lambiase, “I am leaping around just like a kangaroo, my friend.”
“I’m experiencing frequent headaches! It’s absolutely insane.”
Both Red Bull drivers encountered problems, as Sergio Perez also experienced difficulties with the handling of his car.
“The ride is absolutely terrible,” exclaimed the Mexican, as he crossed the finish line in eighth place, more than eight-tenths of a second behind the leading pack.
“The front view prevents me from seeing the apex of Turn 3.”
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Red Bull has faced challenges right from the start during previous weekends, and this one is no exception. The competition has become tougher, forcing Verstappen and the team to work harder in order to achieve their recent successes.
Despite facing tough competition from McLaren’s Lando Norris and benefiting from fortunate Safety Car timing in Miami, Verstappen managed to bounce back from a challenging first practice at Imola. He ultimately secured pole position and emerged victorious in the race, winning by a narrow margin of less than a second at the finish line.
Verstappen acknowledged that this weekend could pose challenges for Red Bull, despite their recent victories in the last two Monaco Grands Prix.
“Looking at the track layout, it’s probably not going to be our best track, just because our car normally struggles a bit over bumps and kerbs,” he said.
“We did work on it a bit compared to last year. I think so far, on most of the tracks that we’ve been to, our low-speed performance has improved a little bit. But I don’t think this is going to be a very easy weekend.
“But I think Monaco never is very straightforward, even when you are supposed to have the best car.
“Monaco is a very tricky track to get everything to work, get the tyres to work, in a quali lap, for example, red flags, there’s always a lot of disruption and a lot of things can go right, but also a lot of things can go wrong. So yeah, we just need to be on it.
“Of course, Imola started off really bad and we managed to turn it around. I wouldn’t want to have a weekend like that again. It’s quite stressful and not nice, but we know that this is a more difficult track for us, even though we have won here in the past. It’s quite complicated so we’ll see where we’re at tomorrow.”
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