Ted Kravitz stunned by what Red Bull boss Christian Horner said for the ‘first time’ at the Monaco Grand Prix

Red Bull Racing were left watching the podium celebrations from afar once again at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Following on from Max Verstappen’s incredible victory at Imola last weekend on their 400th Grand Prix start in Formula 1, Red Bull had a much tougher time during Sunday’s race in Monte Carlo.

Yuki Tsunoda was subject to a disastrous strategy after failing to reach the top 10 shootout in qualifying and once again failed to add to the team’s points tally.

Verstappen struggled to extract a perfect lap out of his Red Bull in qualifying as the track continues to not suit the strengths of the RB21.

He was initially expected to start fifth but was promoted one position after Lewis Hamilton’s penalty for impeding the Dutchman during Q1.

The four-time world champion then ran his own race, adjusting his strategy to do something different to the two McLaren drivers and Charles Leclerc and with two laps to go, he was leading the race.

That was until he had to take his second mandatory pit stop which he took on the penultimate lap and saw him return to where he started as he crossed the line in fourth.

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Christian Horner has ruled out Red Bull winning the constructors’ championship this season

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has once again been dealing with two very different circumstances in both garages this season.

Keeping Max Verstappen happy is imperative to Red Bull’s long-term future while finding the perfect teammate for him appears to be a search that’s still going on.

Ted Kravitz was speaking on Ted’s Notebook after the race about the Red Bull situation and explained: “Max was left frustrated, but that was probably the best that they could do.

“He’s still in the championship, he’s well and truly in the championship is Max Verstappen even though that suggests that McLaren had a very good day.

“Christian Horner on the constructors’ championship I thought was interesting earlier in the weekend when after a bit of change since Sergio Perez was in the team, said, ‘Well, I think we can discount the constructors’ championship.’

“So, obviously they kind of do, because they haven’t found a solution to somebody scoring points with their second car.

“That’s the first time Horner’s actually said it. So, yeah, if you work at Red Bull and you’re after a bonus for winning the constructors’ championship, you can whistle goodbye to it for this year but I think you already knew that because it is heading McLaren’s way.

“It’s drivers’ championship or nothing for Red Bull Racing this year, but again, you probably already knew that.”

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Christian Horner laments ‘extremely difficult’ Monaco Grand Prix for Yuki Tsunoda

Red Bull are already 176 points behind McLaren in the constructors’ championship after eight race weekends.

Last season has demonstrated that things can change very quickly mid-season and Red Bull are hoping for a game-changing change when the front wing regulations are tweaked next weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Speaking after the race in his official press conference, Horner explained: “We rolled the dice today. It didn’t work and our best chance was a safety car or a red flag or VSC as you’re never going to overtake on track here.

“We went long with Max and he led a lot of the laps today but ultimately had to take that final stop.

“For Yuki, we did the inverse, and pitted him on lap one, initially it looked like he would get significant benefit from it but then everyone started to drive extremely slowly, as they started playing around with their tactics.

“He was basically on the same set of tyres for the whole race and did his fastest laps at the end there when he finally got some clear air but it was done by then; an extremely difficult [day] for him today.”

Tsunoda will know he needs to up his game, particularly in qualifying when he’s given himself too much to do to try and get close to Verstappen.

That’s not an easy task, but even the four-time world champion isn’t able to do enough to keep Red Bull in contention for the constructors’ title.