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Max Verstappen feels Red Bull needs a bit more in performance to be comfortable in its fight for pole position at the 2023 F1 Monaco GP. The Red Bull driver did not have the best of days in Monaco.
The FP1 was woeful as Max was on a strange setup that did not work for him. He was struggling to keep the car on the track and complained about the car's characteristics.
FP2 was much better as it was later revealed by Red Bull that the driver was on the wrong setup. Max Verstappen did end up securing the fastest lap of the session but it wasn't straightforward in any way.
There was strong competition from the likes of Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, and Fernando Alonso. Looking back at the session, Max Verstappen admitted that it was very close at the front of the grid.
The Red Bull driver felt that the team might need to find a few tenths, especially considering the fact that the Ferrari drivers look very strong around the track. Verstappen said:
“I think FP1 was quite tricky, I was not really happy with the ride of the car on the kerbs and the bumps. I think FP2 was already a lot better, the car was a lot more competitive.
“But compared to Ferrari especially, I think we were still a bit lacking on like general ride of the car, so how it handles the kerbs, the bumps, the drops in camber."
Max Verstappen thinks Aston Martin are close as well
The challenge over a lap was not only from Ferrari as Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin had also been right up there at the sharp end of the grid.
Coming to the race in Monaco, the Spaniard did feel that the car could prove to be very potent. Looking at the lap times and how the car looks on track this has proven to be a possibility.
Max Verstappen acknowledged the possible threat from the Spaniard and said,
“So that’s still something we need to work on for tomorrow because you can see they are very, very close and knowing that once you go on to the limit in qualifying, we need a bit more to stay ahead of them.”
After watching a season of dominance from Red Bull, it will be interesting to see if there is any kind of competition between the top-tier drivers. At Monaco, qualifying is everything and if either of the Ferrari drivers or Fernando Alonso are able to challenge Max then we would be looking at a very intriguing race.
