While Max Verstappen surprised many by qualifying second on Saturday, his race came to an end almost immediately the following day. The Dutchman already felt some anomalies during the Formula 1 formation lap, then struggled to get the RPMs into the correct window during the pre-start procedure. The final nail in the coffin came when he lost the power unit completely as soon as he released the clutch.
Speaking to media, team principal Laurent Mekies confirmed an engine-related issue was behind the drama at the start of the Monaco Grand Prix and revealed that Red Bull had intended to replace the power unit after the Monaco weekend regardless.
“We have identified what the issue is,” Mekies said, without going into further detail. “It developed on the formation lap and it gave him or us no chance. So that’s what it is.
“As you may be aware, it was also the very first PU of Max this season, which was planned to be changed after Monaco.”
The latter is a common tactic among teams. Monaco is not a power-sensitive circuit due to its twisty layout, meaning many teams opt to run an older power unit in Monte Carlo before switching to a fresh one ahead of the Barcelona weekend.
“It’s not what we wanted,” Mekies added. “Obviously, we can only apologise to Max because the job he had done with the team to get to that level of pace around Monaco was outstanding. Probably early days to discuss what the fix is, but we think we have identified what the issue is.”
Laurent Mekies says an engine swap was already planned for the next round
Photo by: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images
Will Barcelona be the real test for Red Bull?
Verstappen himself said he was less downbeat than he would have been had this retirement significantly affected his title chances. With the Red Bull driver currently sitting seventh in the championship standings, that is not the case.
“If I would be leading the championship, then of course it’s a very, very painful one. Like this, it’s less painful, but it’s still really annoying and disappointing for everyone”, the four-time world champion said.
“We know of course that everyone wants to finish every single race, but yeah, I just hope that we understand quickly what it is and that we can fix it for the future.”
The positive for Red Bull is that the outright pace was there in Monaco, and on a circuit where Verstappen had initially joked that he would need a new back to get through the weekend.
“Max was strong on Friday, we tried to extract a bit more, we didn’t manage to do so in FP3, so we had to find another optimum point,” Mekies reflected on a weekend of mixed fortunes.
“The guys have been brilliant at finding another optimum point, probably better than the Friday one, at least for qualifying. For the race we will never know. And honestly we will never know for Isack [Hadjar] either because of the magnitude of the issues we had.”
Red Bull saw encouraging signs in Monaco
Photo by: Erik Junius
Although the pace shown in Monaco offers encouragement, Verstappen believes that the upcoming grand prix in Barcelona will be the real test for Red Bull.
“We’ve been quick on low-speed tracks with not too many high-speed corners, which I know that has been, from what I’ve seen so far this year, a bit our weak point,” Verstappen said.
“So I hope with the changes that we made to the car it will be better, but I don’t know of course how much.”
Additional reporting by Ben Vinel
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