Verstappen admits that Red Bull facing problems in Monaco

Max Verstappen conceded that he is struggling with his Red Bull car and did not envisage any improvement with set-up changes after winding up fourth in Friday’s opening practice at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The three-time world champion and standings leader said he could not describe the difficulties he faced in a car that “jumped like a kangaroo” as he struggled more than half a second off the pace set by Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari.

“I don’t think I can describe what is actually going on,” he said.

“It’s just very difficult. It’s not something that I didn’t expect, but it’s definitely at the higher end — the worst possible outcome of the weekend so far.

“There’s a lot of bumps and kerbs and camber changes as well on the track and that’s basically impossible to take every time that we go over it.

“There’s a lot of lap time lost just because the car doesn’t ride it well. That is definitely hampering us at the moment to go faster. There’s also no real clear direction or solution for the weekend to try and solve something like that.”

Leclerc was in imperious form to finish fastest ahead of revitalised seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, his future Ferrari team-mate, and Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin.

Verstappen and Red Bull faced similar problems at last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix where he bounced back to take pole position with late set-up changes and then won the race, narrowly ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.

This time, he said, the problems are very different.

“Imola was completely different with different issues that you can solve with set-up,” he said. “But these kind of things you cannot solve with set-up because it’s how the car is made and designed.

“These kinds of things you cannot change overnight so we are stuck with that. We’ll try to make it a little bit better, but I don’t expect miracles.”

He added that after being concerned by the pace of McLaren in recent races, it was now Ferrari and Mercedes who were showing speed ahead of Red Bull.

“Ferrari are miles ahead so I’m not even thinking about that for tomorrow,” he said. “I just want to try and solve the issues that we have, try to make it a little bit more drivable and then see where we end up.”