Verstappen expects Red Bull to struggle on the high Monaco kerbs

Despite his impressive form this year, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen is not sure that the narrow streets of the Monaco circuit will suit his car as he expects his RB20 to struggle on the high kerbs.

The three-time world champion has won five of the opening seven races in 2024, displaying dominant form in several of those rounds. Despite this impressive form, he has mixed feeling coming into Monaco as he thinks that his car will not be best suited for the requirement of the slow, narros corners of the Monaco street circuit.

"It's a completely different track," he started. "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."

"But I think Monaco never is very straightforward, even when you are supposed to have the best car. Monaco is 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 yeah, we just need to be on it.

The reigning champion had a tough start to his Imola weekend as he struggled for the optimal balance on Friday. However, the team managed to turn its fortunes around for Saturday thanks to a deep analysis and simulator work conducted by Sebastien Buemi and Jake Dennis back in the team's Milton Keynes factory.

Verstappen said that he would ideally avoid a similar stressful opening day: "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."

Ferrari and McLaren appeared to close in on the field-leading Red Bull in recent races. The Scuderia took victory in Australia courtesy of Carlos Sainz while the British outfit was victorious in Miami with Lando Norris. Even if Ferrari and McLaren received external help in both cases, they looked very competitive, and both outfits displayed impressive speed a few days ago at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Speaking of the challenges posed by McLaren and Ferrari, Verstappen said: " I mean, naturally from outside, I think it is one of the more difficult tracks for us. Plus, in the last few years, I think Ferrari has always been very, very strong here.

"Plus, McLaren lately, the last two races, have really ramped up in performance. So they for sure are the ones to watch as well. And in Monaco, you might have some surprises. I mean, last year, Esteban did an amazing lap as well in qualifying. So these kind of things in Monaco, they can happen when someone feels really good. and confident, so we'll see what happens."