Red Bull's Helmut Marko left confused after Max Verstappen's F1 Monaco GP qualifying effort

Red Bull's senior motorsport advisor, Helmut Marko, was confused by Max Verstappen's disappointing P5 finish in the qualifying round of the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix. Though Verstappen inherited P4 after Lewis Hamilton's grid penalty, Marko said the team is unaware of the dramatic drop in pace.

The Circuit de Monaco's layout consists of multiple low-speed corners, and such tracks seemed unsuitable for Red Bull's 2025 season challenger, RB21. Verstappen's struggles were visible in the first two practice sessions.

Regardless, in FP3, held on Saturday, May 24, the Dutchman showed signs of improvement, finishing P2. However, in the qualifying session, Verstappen's performance gain disappeared as he settled for P5, seven tenths of a second slower than pole winner Lando Norris.

Meanwhile, Helmut Marko was baffled by Verstappen's sudden dip in the qualifying round. Talking to Sky DE, he said:

"We don't know exactly ourselves. We just didn't have the necessary grip at the crucial moment. The car started sliding more and more, especially in the last sector. After the third practice, we were actually hoping for the front row or third place. However, the gap was obvious. We could not have set those times."

That being said, Max Verstappen has been promoted to P4 after Lewis Hamilton was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding the four-time world champion in Q1.

Hamilton's race engineer, Riccardo Adami, passed on false information to the Brit, saying Verstappen was out on a slow lap. But in reality, the Dutch driver was flying on a push lap behind Lewis. He had to abort midway since Hamilton impeded him, resulting in a slam dunk penalty.

While Verstappen will start the Monaco GP from P4, fighting McLarens won't be an easy task, especially with RB21 struggling with grip on low-speed corners.

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Max Verstappen pinpoints key areas where Red Bull is losing pace in Monaco

Max Verstappen at F1 Grand Prix of Monaco - Qualifying - Source: Getty

After a disappointing P5 finish in the qualifying round of the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix, Max Verstappen revealed that Red Bull is losing tons of pace in the middle sector compared to McLaren and Ferrari. The RB21's weakness lies in low-speed corners, and Verstappen bore the brunt of it in Monaco.

Talking to media after qualifying, Verstappen said (via Sky Sports):

"Mainly the middle sector. All the low-speed mechanical grip corners, we didn't have it". I couldn't find more lap time compared to practice. Every time I had to ride a curb or drop a wheel in a cambered corner, it didn't grip up. As soon as we went out in qualifying, and I saw the lap time progression, I knew we were not in that fight."

Max Verstappen further added that he is not surprised with Red Bull's dramatic loss of pace as the car has been lacking balance in low-speed corners throughout the season.