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Max Verstappen has conceded that Red Bull was just plagued with the same issues that it struggled with throughout the regulations, and they continued to be a hindrance even now on slow-speed tracks like Monaco. The Dutch driver could only qualify in P5 for the race on Sunday (will be promoted to P4 thanks to Lewis Hamilton's penalty), but by the time the chequered flag fell on qualifying, it became clear that he was not in contention for pole.
Red Bull has traditionally not been the best car around Monaco in the current set of regulations. It was comprehensively beaten by Ferrari in 2022 in qualifying, it marginally scraped through with Max Verstappen's brilliance in 2023 and it was nowhere in 2024. The car's inability to ride the kerbs like its competitors, an inherent weakness in slow-speed sections, hurts the car a lot.
This was evident in the latest 2025 qualifying, as in Q3 it became clear that Max Verstappen was just unable to mount any kind of offense for pole position. Talking to the media, including Sportskeeda, after qualifying, the Red Bull driver was quite blunt in his verdict as he said that the car has been the same throughout the ground effect regulation. He said,
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"It’s a little bit better, but we’re just weak in low speed, and then also where you have to take kerbs and the camber drops away from you. That’s why our car doesn’t like that; it’s never liked it and still doesn’t like it.”
He added,
"I mean, in the FP2, it was not very good. The problem is, normally, yes, we can fine-tune our balance, we find performance. But when a car is not performing at low speed, it’s not performing. It doesn’t matter what you do with the set-up, and that’s our problem. It’s always been our problem from the start of 22’, and it’s still our problem.”
Despite gaining some momentum in the first sector during his final attempt in Q3, the defending F1 champion struggled in the middle sector in Monaco on Saturday.
Max Verstappen doesn't think a cleaner lap would have made a difference
The final laps were pivotal in where each driver ended up in qualifying, and on Max Verstappen's side, things didn't quite go as well. The Red Bull driver was not only a step behind the likes of Ferrari and McLaren, but he also had a slower middle sector, which ended his charge anyway.
Looking back at the qualifying session, the Dutch driver didn't think it would have mattered what he did on the final lap, as he was a lock for P5 anyway. He said,
"I could've been a little closer but we just didn't have the grip. When you don't have the grip around here, you can't really extract everything out of it. Doesn't matter if it's three tenths, four tenths, seven tenths. We're just not fast enough."
Max Verstappen would be starting the race in the second row alongside championship leader Oscar Piastri. The two drivers have had a few moments against each other in the last couple of race starts, and hence this could potentially prove an interesting battle on Sunday.
