Verstappen criticises Red Bull as long-standing weakness exposed

Max Verstappen believes Red Bull has been "found out" after long-standing problems with its Formula 1 car were exposed in the Monaco Grand Prix. 

Verstappen qualified a lowly sixth in Monte Carlo, his worst position on the grid since 11th in Singapore last year, with a wall-strike on his final Q3 lap at Turn 1 preventing him from improving on his provisional third place.

The RB20 has struggled all weekend in Monaco, unable to ride the bumps and kerbs, with Verstappen claiming to be 'bouncing like a kangaroo' in Friday practice.

The dejected three-time F1 champion has explained just what the problems are and how his car was left feeling "like a go-kart".

"We tried a lot of things on the car, and literally nothing made it better, so then you are just stuck, there is not much you can do," Verstappen told media including RacingNews365.

"You can see it in the second sector, we are so bad just because I can't touch any kerbs as it upsets the car too much and you just lose a lot of lap-time. 

"We went softer, stiffer everything, but the car is like a go-kart. It is like I am running without suspension, and just jumping around a lot.

"It is not absorbing any kerb strikes, bumps or camber changes, and in the last corner, the amount of times I almost jumped into the wall was pretty incredible. 

"It is not something that is new. We have had this problem since 2022, and I think for the last two years, we had a car advantage and then it gets masked a little because we gain in the corners where the kerbs and bumps are not that much of a limitation.

"But with everyone catching up, naturally, when you are not improving your weakest point, you get found out and that is what happened this weekend. 

"The last two races have been incredibly difficult, but this is the worst-case scenario, and [we didn't fix] our weaknesses.

Better news

The car's problems appear to be in low-speed corners, such as Mirabeau and the hairpin, with Verstappen often down on the leading pace through the second sector.

The 26-year-old set purple sector times in the first segment of the lap in the medium to high-speed section through Sainte Devote and into Casino Square, but felt the bumps were costly.

"The car is literally on a knife-edge to drive, but I felt quite comfortable in the medium and high-speed, the car was quite quick," he added.

"But everywhere there are bumps, it was just jumping around, so I'm just driving around that and trying to optimise everything. 

"You have to look at where we are - P6 and P18, [team-mate Sergio Perez] is normally very good on street circuits and comes alive, and I think it says enough that he is in that position - so I cannot be disappointed with sixth."