Championship leader Max Verstappen expects his Red Bull face a tough fight to win the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend.
Despite winning last weekend in Imola, Verstappen came close to being beaten by McLaren’s Lando Norris who finished less than a second behind him.
Red Bull’s early advantage over their rivals appears to have been cut significantly over recent rounds. Verstappen suffered his first defeat in a race he finished in 2024 in Miami, where he was beaten by Norris.
Although Verstappen managed to take pole position in Imola and hold off Norris over the closing laps, Verstappen expects a different dynamic this weekend in Monaco.
“It’s a completely different track,” the Red Bull driver said. “I think looking at the track layout, it’s probably not going to be our best track, just because our car normally struggles a bit over bumps and kerbs.
“We did work on it a bit compared to last year. I think so far, on most of the tracks that we’ve been to, our low-speed performance has improved a little bit. But I don’t think this is going to be a very easy weekend.”
Red Bull have won the last three Monaco grands prix in a row. Verstappen scored two of those wins, in 2021 and 2023. However he said “Monaco never is very straightforward, even when you are supposed to have the best car.
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“Monaco’s a very tricky track to get everything to work, get the tyres to work in a quali lap, for example. Red flags – there’s always a lot of disruption and a lot of things can go right, but also a lot of things can go wrong.
“So we just need to be honest. Of course, Imola started off really bad and we managed to turn it around. I wouldn’t want to have a weekend like that again – it’s quite stressful and not nice. But we know that this is a more difficult track for us, even though we have won here in the past. It’s quite complicated. So we’ll see where we’re at tomorrow.”
As the ultimate outlier circuit on the calendar, Monaco can produce unexpected results – such as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon qualifying and finishing third in the event last season. Verstappen says he expects Red Bull will face intense competition from their rivals in Monte Carlo.
“I mean naturally from our side, I think it is one of the more difficult tracks for us,” he said. “In the last few years, I think Ferrari has always been very, very strong here. Plus McLaren, lately, their last two races really ramped up in…
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