Verstappen Compares His RB20 To Go-Kart After P6 In Qualifying

Saturday, 25 May 2024 at 21:30

Max Verstappen compared his car to a go-kart as he spoke to the media after the eighth qualifying sessions of the season at Circuit de Monaco.

The triple World Champion equaled the record (of legendary Ayrton Senna) for the most consecutive pole positions during Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend.

This week in Monaco, the 26-year-old could have made history. However, he just didn't have the pace in his RB20 to match the pole sitter, Charles Leclerc.

The track in Monaco was expected to be one of the worst for Red Bull this season, and it proved true. RB20, for some reason, cannot perform very well on bumpy tracks where it needs to ride over kerbs.

From the start of the weekend, Red Bull seemed to be off the pace, and Verstappen told the media already on Friday that he didn't expect the situation to improve.

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During the qualifying on Saturday, Sergio Perez couldn't put in a fat enough time to get out of Q1. Although Verstappen was quite a bit faster, he couldn't do better than P6 ultimately, after making a crucial mistake on his final run of Q3. He said after the qualifying:

"We tried a lot of things on the car, and literally nothing made it better, so then you are just stuck, there is not much you can do."

"You can see it in the second sector, we are so bad just because I can't touch any kerbs as it upsets the car too much and you just lose a lot of lap-time."

The triple World Champion warned his team that he was driving pretty much over the edge with his Red Bull, risking jumping into the wall at every second corner, and he paid the price on the final run.

Although he didn't damage his RB20, Verstappen lost enough time in the first corner (after bumping into the wall) to just give up, as he couldn't possibly make up for it in the rest of the lap. He added:

"We went softer, stiffer everything, but the car is like a go-kart. It is like I am running without suspension, and just jumping around a lot."

"It is not absorbing any kerb strikes, bumps or camber changes, and in the last corner, the amount of times I almost jumped into the wall was pretty incredible."