Max Verstappen warns Imola F1 heroics hard to repeat for Red Bull in Monaco GP

Imola’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix showed Red Bull is making progress with its 2025 Formula 1 car, but Max Verstappen doesn’t believe the team’s form will carry over to this weekend’s race in Monaco.

Verstappen was pipped to pole last weekend in Italy, but passed polesitter Oscar Piastri at the start before comfortably controlling the race. Beneath him was a Red Bull that was much stronger on tyre management than it had been previously, while the McLarens looked less impressive than expected.

Imola saw the introduction of Pirelli’s softest C6 compound, with its usual C5 tyre designated as a medium and therefore used in the race. That tyre allocation remains in place for Monaco’s tight and twisty street circuit, where tyre wear will be less of a limiting factor.

But Verstappen warns that Red Bull still isn’t fully on top of its weakness riding over kerbs and bumps, which are plentiful around the Principality. The lack of high-speed corners, he fears, will give McLaren a leg up on the competition.

“Imola has given us some good ideas about what we need from the car, but here it’s a very different track. You can’t set the car up like you did in Imola because it would bounce all over the place,” Verstappen told Dutch-language media on Thursday, including Motorsport.com.

“This track is still not optimal for us. I think we all know that. You can see this season that we can be competitive every time we go to tracks with high-speed corners, but the rest is more difficult. If you look at Imola, you could still see that the slowest corners weren’t our strongest on that track. We know that this track isn’t for our car and that is still the same.”

Red Bull’s weakness over bumps and kerbs was particularly apparent in Monaco last year, with Verstappen only managing sixth on the grid behind cars from three different teams, and finishing a processional race in the same position.

Now, he says he doesn’t feel that Red Bull made significant strides in addressing the issues over the winter break.

“To be honest, it hasn’t felt too different so far compared to last year,” Verstappen said about the key Red Bull weakness.

“But of course, we’re still trying to find some things with the setup as well, to make the car at least a bit more driveable on tracks like this.

“At the moment, it’s hard to say. We need to wait and see how we start the weekend tomorrow, including the feeling in the car. But like I said, it won’t be easy, that’s for sure.”