Verstappen With Disturbing News As He Isn't Sure Red Bull Can Fix Critical Issue This Year

Sunday, 26 May 2024 at 14:00

Max Verstappen discussed Red Bull's problems after scoring P6 in the qualifying for the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix.

The 26-year-old Red Bull Racing driver stood on the pole in every single race of the season up until this weekend at Circuit de Monaco.

During Saturday's qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, the triple World Champion had the chance to break Ayrton Senna's record for the most consecutive pole positions, but the hometown hero, Charles Leclerc, denied him.

Verstappen did all he could, but he explained to the media after the qualifying that he was at a disadvantage compared to everyone because he had to drive around the kerbs with his RB20, which doesn't cope well with kerb-riding.

All the other drivers then had a shorter and faster distance around the track, and the only thing Verstappen could do was to risk more as he went closer to the walls in other sections, trying to make up for the time lost.

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The Red Bull Racing F1 driver said after the second practice on Friday that it wasn't an issue that could be fixed with a different setup, and his words were proven right the next day.

Unfortunately, Verstappen doesn't even feel like it will be possible for his team to solve this issue during this season, which gives opportunity to McLaren and Ferrari.

"First of all, we need to understand what it is because we clearly don't understand it. We will work hard to try and find the problem, and then of course try to get rid of it, but I don't know if we can do it this year, but hopefully for next year. If we knew [what the problem was], we would have fixed it."

Starting the Monaco Grand Prix from P6, it was clear the Flying Dutchman would need a miracle to win the race, so he was already looking forward to the Spanish Grand Prix after the qualifying on Saturday.

"I know there is one clear direction where I think we're still lacking quite a bit of performance - so if we can fix that, our car will be better in general on every single track."

"Spain has no bumps so that is probably better for us, but there are a few tracks on the calendar that are not ideal for us - but there are probably some races that will suit our car a bit more - but we have to know what to work on."