Red Bull 'saving grace' highlighted as Monaco misery forecast

Red Bull only has a single "saving grace" heading into the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer believes.

In Canada last time out, the RB22 was firmly the fourth-best car behind Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari, although Max Verstappen did bank his first podium of the year, albeit aided by George Russell's DNF and McLaren's double strategy faux pas.

Red Bull has been struggling with its chassis thus far in 2026, with Verstappen previously expressing concern at the nature of handling bumps and kerbs, key to extracting qualifiyng performance in the Principality.

With the team not expected to be in contention for the win this weekend, GP2 champion-turned-pundit Palmer believes he can only see one bright area for the team. 

"The only saving grace for Red Bull I saw was the change they made from the Sprint to qualifying, where they found a good chunk of compliance," Palmer told the F1 Nation podcast.

"Looking through the sector times, Max and Isack were really quick in the first sector, so that's the only hope I could see for him, and maybe they did find something there that brought them closer towards the picture at the front.

"We'll only know when the cars hit the ground, and they need to start [the weekend in Monaco] better than they have done recently."

Fellow pundit James Hinchcliffe added that Verstappen's podium in Canada came with a big "asterisk."

"Compliance is so important in Monaco, and that was one of the biggest complaints Max had in Montreal," the former IndyCar driver said. 

"Yes, a first podium was a great drive and great result, but it took a Mercedes DNF and a double McLaren strategy blunder to even be in the conversation.

"He was tracked down by Hamilton, who closed up six, seven, eight seconds, and the podium comes with an asterisk beside it for sure.

"I just don't see with that car's struggles that it is going to be as competitive as the first three teams in Monaco."