“Overtaken by Reality”: After Miami GP Blitz, Red Bull Face an Uphill Battle After an Error Annoying Max Verstappen in Monaco

Often small mistakes prove to be expensive in a sport like F1, especially if a dominant team like Red Bull makes one! Given how challenging the Monaco circuit is, Red Bull’s road to victory in the Monaco Grand Prix is already rocky. While one of many RB19’s advantages is its straight-line speed, and there aren’t many straights in the Monte Carlo circuit, making overtaking difficult. Adding to this, they came into the race with a ‘wrong set-up’. Acknowledging the fact that Monaco is a tight and dangerous track where set-up is key, what cost would Red Bull pay in the race? 

Unlike the Miami GP, what happens in qualifying is crucial for the Milton Keynes team. But based on Friday’s practice session, Red Bull should definitely be worried. As soon as Max Verstappen entered the track for the first time in FP1, he started complaining about issues with the low ride height, including the car bottoming out and being very difficult to control in the high-speed sectors. However, he had to live with the problem until more substantial changes could be made. As a result, Verstappen ended the first practice in P6 behind all his rivals aka Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Mercedes. Clearly, the Austrian team’s small mistake proved to be very expensive as it opened the door for its rivals for a legitimate first victory in the season.

Blaming the team’s difficult start in Monaco on some correlation problems from the simulator, Red Bull Racing team advisor Helmut Marko said in a conversation with the German Auto, Motor and Sport “Max (Verstappen, ed.) was super happy after the simulator sessions at the beginning of the week. Unfortunately, we were overtaken by reality. Unfortunately, things don’t always work like in the data world. We set the ride height too low.” [translated via Google]

Read More: Despite Taking Dominant Wins in 2023, Sergio Perez Runs an Air of Pessimism for Red Bull’s Monaco Prospects

However, an error doesn’t become a mistake if you correct it. But is it enough to win?

Max Verstappen says “we need a bit more” pace to stay ahead in Monaco GP 

The break between the first and second free practice was used by Red Bull to make major adjustments to the car’s setup. For Verstappen, this proved to be a step in the right direction. After an unhappy ride in FP1, FP2 saw Verstappen return to the usual zone as he topped the session with the best time of 1.12.462. However, there was only a little separating him and the Ferrari pair. 

While Charles Leclerc, the home hero, finished FP2 in P2, only 0.065s behind Verstappen, Carlos Sainz finished P3, 0.107s behind the board leader. So, Max Verstappen felt Red Bull needed more pace at Monaco GP to stay ahead and said, “Compared to Ferrari, we are still lacking on the general ride of the car – so how it handles the curbs, the bumps, the drops in camber. So it’s still something we need to work on. They are very, very close, and knowing once we all go to the limit in Qualifying, we need a bit more to stay ahead of them.”

He further added: “[Aston Martin] are close as well, so we definitely need to build a little bit more of a buffer if we want to be ahead of them.”

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Will Red Bull’s winning streak break this weekend given their speed disadvantage to their competitors and the fact that their super-duper DRS would have little to no impact in Monaco?