Hendrick Motorsports legend backs Max Verstappen to cruise in Monaco GP

Hendrick Motorsports' legendary former crew chief Steve Letarte has commented on Max Verstappen's odds of acing the upcoming Monaco GP. The NBC sportscaster and Spire Motorsports' consultant believes that the Dutchman will fly like a "rocket ship" on one of the toughest tracks on the F1 calendar.

The 3.337 km long Circuit de Monaco will host the eighth Formula 1 dash on the 2024 calendar. Reigning world champion Max Verstappen is fresh off his victory in the Emilia Romagna GP after defending against McLaren's Lando Norris by a small margin of 0.725 seconds.

The current season has witnessed the RB20 driver rake in five victories from seven races and McLaren's resurgence as the contenders on the track. As a result, the Red Bulls are in a less dominant position compared to their 2023 season, where they collected 21 wins from 22 races.

Steve Letarte, who has served as a crew chief for notable drives like Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and a short stint with Corey LaJoie, believes that Verstappen would dominate the street circuit.

Witnessing the polesitter and race victory odds of the 3x WDC, the Hendrick Motorsports legend said (via Dirty Mo Media on X):

"So it's +160 to win the pole [and] +200 to win the race. I like Verstappen to win the pole. I would avoid the race just because I think they [Red Bulls] have it more of a lock to win the race. But I can actually see the race going wrong easier than qualifying. I think Verstappen's gonna be a rocket ship around there."

"Rule out Charles" - Hendrick Motorsports' former crew chief's team member sidelines Leclerc as Max Versteppen's challenger

During the Dirty Mo Dough podcast, Hendrick Motorsports' former crew chief Steve Letarte and other team members discussed the odds of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc outperforming Max Verstappen. Norris has witnessed a sharp rise in his performance lately. After waiting for 109 races, the Brit sealed his first F1 win at the 2024 Miami GP.

Moreover, the next race on the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit saw a tough battle between Verstappen and the MCL38 driver as the latter kept on closing the gap as the laps progressed. Although he couldn't win the race, the slim margin of his defeat was under one second which is comparatively better than McLaren's performance against Red Bull over the years.

On the contrary, Charles Leclerc has come inches close to victory but had to settle for anything but a win due to several contradicting factors, largely due to SF24's problems.

While discussing Norris' and Leclerc's odds to win, Letarte expressed (via YouTube):

"Can we all say this is going to be a Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc?" (10.29)

Letarte's team member outlined the Prancing Horses' woes and stated:

"You just got to expect a Ferrari issue too, so that'll probably rule out Charles. I feel like every time he has something to go bad there."

So far, the FP2 session has concluded with Charles Leclerc placed #1 while 7x WDC Lewis Hamilton was the runner-up. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen is in fourth place, followed by Lando Norris in fifth.