Max Verstappen denied backing Lando Norris into Charles Leclerc in sarcastic F1 Monaco GP review, as Christian Horner expands on what can be done.
Having started fourth, there was not much Red Bull’s Verstappen could have done in F1 Monaco GP. He was on the hard compound as opposed to mediums around, but it didn’t matter in the end. The gamble was for a safety car and or a red flag intervention which never came.
That is why Verstappen extended his stint until the penultimate lap to pit for soft. He had a good gap from Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and so, irrespective of anything, he was to finish fourth in all probabilities. He denied backing Norris into Leclerc’s path, though, as it seemed like at one point.
It was simply running on tyres with no grip. He was quite sarcastic in his answers about the excitement levels. “Very exciting,” said Verstappen to media. “I was on the edge of my seat every lap. So you’re really pushing, it was fantastic. I mean, maybe next year, four stops? I could have done four stops, I would have still been P4. So, yeah, for us at least up front, it didn’t do anything.
“We had nothing to lose; we had a big gap behind. When I heard it was like 45, 50 seconds or something…you can pit, of course, and you just drive by yourself. Or you just hope that something happens and you get lucky. But that didn’t come the whole time, [and] my emotions were very neutral. Even with the safety car I would have finished P4.
“It is more like a red flag situation [would have helped]. It is fine. Also if we look at the whole race, we didn’t have pace anyways to the Top 3 cars. Everytime I stay with them, my tyres were heating a bit too much, this is just not our track. We were slower in qualifying than last year. I don’t think we have improved what we wanted to improve around here.
“I think, considering our pace the whole weekend, we did a good job. I think, as a team, of course, we were never happy with it P4, but we also have to accept our limitations with the car. [No, I was not backing Norris into Leclerc] I had no grip. I was just driving around with the grip that I had from the tyre. But you could see still then you can’t pass,” summed up Verstappen.
The Dutchman reiterated that Red Bull has historically struggled in Monaco and it was no different. Even though Horner noted that they improved somewhat, but it was still not enough. “Honestly I don’t really think about the championship,” continued Verstappen. “I just want to go race by race. Of course, some tracks you might be a bit more competitive, and some you will struggle a bit more and I think it was clear that again here in Monaco we struggled.
“Honestly every year we have struggled here with this new generation of cars, only in ‘23 we had a massive pace advantage and we still win the race. But all the other years for me personally have always been a big struggle.” Horner reckoned it was a gamble that Red Bull had to take to start on the hard compound and go long in the stint that Verstappen did.
Even though he got close to Oscar Piastri for a moment, it was not enough. “We rolled the dice a little bit,” said Horner to media. “Starting on the hard, our tactic was always to go long, with the main opportunity being safety cars or red flags, which can sometimes be the case here. So, Max led large portions of the race, but it was one of those Monaco’s where everybody pretty much behaved.
“So, yeah, the first stop, we got pretty close to Oscar at one point. He had a wobble on his second lap out after his pit stop, but we would have been at best alongside. So we decided, look, we’ll keep going. The upside was, if there had been a safety car or a red flag, Max would have led. Then again, we had the medium tyre, went very, very long on, you know, obviously stopped on the last lap.
“And again, you’re just hanging out for a safety car or a VSC or a red flag at that point. I think that, yeah, I’d say it was an improvement. It was strategically more interesting. There was more jeopardy to it. It was certainly better than what we saw last year where there was just a procession. The fundamental problem is you cannot overtake here and you can drive around three, four seconds off the pace.
“So that’s the fundamental problem. At the end it just looked like Lando didn’t want to go anywhere near Max. It was almost a race to be the slowest. Lewis was so far behind, over 50 seconds behind Max. Max on a set of tyres that was way past his best. Lando didn’t want to go within two seconds of him, no matter how much the tyres were thin.
“Lando, of course, which was giving Charles a little bit of a chance,” summed up Horner. On the topic of potential changes, the Red Bull chief had some ideas but how viable they are, he is not certain. He is of the view that it is well known how the circuit is usually and so, there is no point in going too much into it unless there is some changes to the layout.
“Yeah, that’s circuit-specific, we’ve known that, it’s been on the calendar for 72 years, so…I think it’s the only way to really encourage any form of…I don’t think I saw a single overtake in the race…so trying to create a bit more braking, you know, area either on the exit of the tunnel or turn one,” continued Horner. “If there was any way of creating a longer braking zone somewhere, we should really investigate it.
“The cars are so big now that you just don’t have a chance to get alongside. I think everything has to move with the times ultimately, doesn’t it? It’s an iconic, historic circuit. If you look at how Monaco has changed, how much land they’ve reclaimed into the seas in the 72 appearances here, I don’t think you would need to maybe do too much.
“It just needs to be one area that you can have an overtake. I mean, everybody knows that coming here. The race was pretty much done yesterday. And we’ve introduced another dynamic with the pit stop, which ultimately for the first, I guess the top ten other than the retirement, there’s nobody really changed position,” summed up Horner.
Here’s how F1 Monaco GP panned out
