Christian Horner has said that the layout of the Monaco circuit is causing the RB20 to “struggle.”
Verstappen qualified sixth fastest after outbreaking himself into turn one on his final Q3 run, and his teammate Perez was knocked out in Q1.
Both drivers have complained that the RB20 cannot ride the kerbs well – leading Verstappen to label his car like a go-kart.
Team principal Christian Horner said that the RB20 isn’t suited to the characteristics of the circuit but noted how the three tenths to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari on pole isn’t a fair reflection of where they truly are.
“It’s been a struggle all weekend, the car hasn’t suited the characteristics of this circuit,” he told Sky Sports F1 post qualifying.
“Up until that last run we were still there. I don’t think we would have beaten Charles, but potentially anywhere between second and sixth place was on and unfortunately we couldn’t get that last run in.”
Asked if slow, bumpy street circuits are an issue for the Red Bull, Horner said that it’s something the team needs to understand adding that sector two was where the drivers were losing most of their time.
But he reiterated that Monaco is an outlier on the calendar and that the goal is to have a car that works on a wide range of circuits, something Red Bull have had the edge over the rest during this rule set.
“We’ve just come off the back off eight poles – it had to finish somewhere,” he said. “We knew this would be a tricky venue.
“You can’t design a car for one circuit. You try and give it a big window to be able to be competitive across street tracks and obviously the faster circuits.
“But your always learning, and we will take lessons out of this to improve for the RB21.”
Damage limitation race
With Monaco being such a difficult circuit to overtake, there’s little either Verstappen or Perez can do for tomorrow’s race.
Red Bull’s long run pace was strong during FP2 – so there’s a potential chance for the pitstops to allow them to gain positions with an ideal strategy.
Verstappen says that his goal is to stick with the leaders ahead and let the race play out but he knows there’s little that can be done.
He said: “If it’s just a straightforward race, there’s not that much you can do. The cars are so wide and so big, that, you can’t pass.
“I’ll just try to stick with them, but we don’t have the fastest car – it’s not like we’ve qualified out of position.
“There’s also not any pace advantage that we can use, but we’ll see what we can do.”
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