Alex Brundle saw something troubling in Max Verstappen’s data that highlighted Red Bull’s Monaco Grand Prix problems

The Monaco Grand Prix is an almost completely unique circuit on the Formula 1 calendar.

The most similar circuit on the F1 calendar to Monaco is the Singapore Grand Prix, but that’s a far faster and wider track than the race in the Principality.

The race in Singapore was famously the only Grand Prix that Red Bull failed to win in 2023, and that trend of Red Bull struggling on slow street circuits continued for Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda last weekend.

Verstappen could only qualify fifth for the Monaco Grand Prix, although he at least benefited from Lewis Hamilton’s three-place grid penalty to start on the second row alongside Oscar Piastri.

Piastri wasn’t happy with Verstappen after the race following his opportune move to try and overtake him after the double-waved yellow flags at the swimming pool chicane.

The Dutchman was equally angry on the team radio, accusing Piastri of dangerously closing the door on him as he tried to catch the drivers’ championship leader napping.

Ultimately, Verstappen was never in contention to win in Monaco, even when Red Bull left him out until the last moment to take his second mandatory pit stop.

Pundit Alex Brundle spotted something in the 27-year-old’s telemetry which pinpointed exactly what was going wrong for him across the weekend.

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Max Verstappen’s data shows exactly what went wrong at the Monaco Grand Prix for Red Bull

Brundle was asked on the F1 Nation Podcast about Red Bull’s tricky weekend and explained: “They had to do something different today.

“I mean, to see Max Verstappen half a second off the pace in qualifying, you look back through the data and it’s the slow corner apexes, the car just wasn’t there.

“I saw some data after FP2 but not much later in the weekend, but I’m assuming the trend maintained, where he’s losing three-tenths of a second between just Mirabeau and Portier on each one of those apexes with the car not rotating.

He didn’t quite have the speed,  they put themselves in a decent position and were dreaming strategically of a red flag which, let’s say, is not outlandish to suggest, a third of the races here I’ve had a red flag in them.

“So, they did the best they could without, of course, Yuki in the action to help too much.

“But it’s just an outlier event for Red Bull where the car didn’t have the speed and they had to do something weird on strategy that didn’t pay off.”

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Fernando Alonso refuses to rule out Max Verstappen winning the 2025 F1 world championship

Only one driver in the history of Formula 1 has ever managed to win five consecutive drivers’ championships.

Michael Schumacher achieved the feat between 2000 and 2004 with Ferrari before eventually being displaced by Fernando Alonso.

Verstappen has been compared to Schumacher this season although he’s unlikely to achieve the German’s feat of winning 13 out of 14 races at one point during his final championship campaign to earn his seventh and final title.

Alonso hasn’t ruled out Verstappen winning the championship as he knows how much of a genius the 27-year-old is compared to his rivals.

Red Bull won’t be too concerned about their performance in Monaco given that many of the characteristics of the track don’t carry over to other circuits on the calendar.

However, the size of the deficit may raise some eyebrows and inspire the team to continue to work on this year’s car before switching focus to the 2026 regulations.