Max Verstappen explains the key to ending Monaco GP podium drought

Verstappen wins his first race for red bull — Photo: © LAT Images

Max Verstappen

Verstappen explains the key to ending Monaco GP podium drought

Red Bull driver has yet to finish in top three in five attempts

Ian Parkes

Tuesday 18 May 2021 18:10

Max Verstappen has outlined what he feels are the crucial requirements this weekend if he is to finally end his surprise Monaco Grand Prix podium drought.

Verstappen has raced on five occasions around the Principality and after retiring in his first two races with Toro Rosso and Red Bull respectively, has subsequently finished fifth, ninth and fourth in the last three attempts with the senior team.

After making his best start to an F1 season this year with 80 points from the first four races, Verstappen seemingly has his clearest chance yet to claim a top-three finish in Monaco.

"I’ve never been on the podium in Monaco so I would like to change that," exclaimed Verstappen.

"We just need to have a clean weekend, I think that is very important. We’ll see if we are fast or not but so far in qualifying, we have been quite close so I just hope it’s going to be the same in Monaco.

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"I know very well that there is no margin for error in Monaco [laughs], we just have to make sure we nail it on Saturday.

"Then on Sunday, it is usually straightforward as overtaking is so difficult but a lot of things can happen. We need to be at our best now on Saturday and Sunday to make sure we are on the top step of the podium."

Although Verstappen led for much of the last race in Spain, the Dutch driver feels his eventual second place was a case of damage limitation given the performance of his Red Bull in relation to Hamilton's Mercedes.

While early-season momentum appears to have shifted towards Mercedes, the 23-year-old has every confidence Red Bull can stay in the hunt despite enduring "not the smoothest weekend" in Spain.

"We definitely lacked pace throughout the race," added Verstappen. "It is what it is and we still secured second place and good points for the team.

"I think our tyre degradation but also the general pace of the car wasn’t good enough to really challenge Mercedes in Barcelona.

"I got ahead of Lewis in turn one but if I hadn’t, he would have just driven off so leading the race for so long made it look tougher to lose out on the win. We just need to keep on improving.

"It’s still early in the season so we just have to make sure that we keep pushing and applying the pressure and start winning some more races. We are always analysing and pushing ourselves to the maximum."