Qualifying will be all-important for Max Verstappen’s Monaco Grand Prix victory hopes, as Helmut Marko says “the race is usually a farce”.

Marko – Red Bull’s senior advisor – offered that frank assessment on the eve of the 2025 staging of the Monaco Grand Prix, where Verstappen will look to become a three-time winner of the iconic event, fresh off his impressive victory last time out at Imola.

Monaco Grand Prix: Marko’s ‘race a farce’ verdict justified?

The Monaco Grand Prix serves as a crown jewel in the Formula 1 calendar and arguably its most recognisable destination, with a Monaco GP win joining an Indy 500 and 24 Hours of Le Mans triumph to form the dream ‘Triple Crown of Motorsport’ achievement for a racing driver.

However, with Formula 1 machinery having become bigger and heavier over the years, that has significantly limited the amount of overtaking action seen on race day in Monaco, making a good grid slot here more important than possibly anywhere else Formula 1 visits.

Marko was rather to the point over what this all means for the spectacle of the Monaco Grand Prix, with qualifying highlighted as the session where Verstappen must excel.

When asked by OE24 how important the Monaco Grand Prix is to Verstappen having won just twice here – in 2021 and 2023 – Marko replied: “From the driver’s point of view, it’s usually only qualifying that counts, that one fast lap.

“The race is usually a farce.

“Last year, [Charles] Leclerc and [Carlos] Sainz were sometimes slower than in Formula 3.”

At that point, Marko reflected back on his experiences of racing around the iconic street track.

The now 82-year-old Marko rose up through the junior ranks to make nine starts in Formula 1, but was forced to retire after a piece of debris pierced his visor at the 1972 French Grand Prix and left him permanently blinded in his left eye.

“In my day – I drove Formula 3, Formula Vee and Formula 1 in Monaco – it was different,” Marko continued. “It was a real challenge, without crash barriers, without anything.”

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Verstappen’s assessment of modern F1 machinery meanwhile has done little to inspire hope of an exciting Monaco Grand Prix from a driving perspective, Verstappen suggesting that these ground effect cars are “dull” to take around a street track.

“I do think the cars that we have now, they just don’t really work that nicely on a street circuit, unfortunately,” he said at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

“They are way too big, too stiff, too heavy. So, I would say they don’t really come alive compared to like 2016 even.

“I know the lap times were a lot slower, but at least there felt like on a street circuit, the car was still coming alive a bit. You could take some curbs and yeah, it was working. Now, everything just feels a bit dull.

“But yeah, on tracks like this [Imola], it is a lot of fun, you know, so many fast corners. And you know that basically the limit is the gravel or the grass, and I think that makes it always a little bit more exciting and a little bit more difficult.”

Verstappen goes into the Monaco Grand Prix P3 in the Drivers’ Championship, 22 points behind leader Oscar Piastri.

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