Max Verstappen warned Red Bull not to read too much into its strongest qualifying display of the season in Monaco after the 28-year-old finished second behind Kimi Antonelli. The Dutch driver said the team’s result was encouraging, but not enough to prove the car has been fixed.
That caution matters now because Red Bull had gone into the weekend still wrestling with bumps and kerbs, and Verstappen’s Monaco run briefly suggested the RB22 might finally be moving in the right direction. He was surprised to be fighting for pole position at all, especially after the changes made after the third practice session, and said the next round in Barcelona-Catalunya would tell a much clearer story.
Verstappen said Monaco demanded a soft set-up and that the car was better in that area, but he called it a limitation when Red Bull tries to find more speed. “You always have to run the car reasonably soft here in terms of set-up and suspension,” he said, adding that the gain still did not mean the underlying problem had gone away. He also said the changes before qualifying were modest and that such a narrow street circuit can flatter a package that may not work as well elsewhere.
That is why Barcelona has become the key reference point. Verstappen said the circuit’s high-speed corners will provide a far more accurate measure of Red Bull’s progress, especially after recent flashes of improvement at slower tracks. “This is positive, but next week it’s a completely different circuit,” he said. “Then it’s a different world again.”
The warning lands against a messy backdrop for Verstappen, whose Monaco weekend ended with a first-lap retirement after his car failed to get off the line because of a power unit issue. That problem underlined how little Red Bull can afford to treat a strong qualifying result as proof the RB22 has been transformed. The team has shown better pace on lower-speed circuits, but Verstappen said that does not settle the bigger question of whether it can perform when the speeds rise again.
Barcelona now becomes the real test of whether Monaco was a breakthrough or a one-off. Verstappen’s message was plain: Red Bull can take the confidence, but it should not start celebrating too soon.
