Max Verstappen criticises F1’s pit stop rules after the Monaco GP, as Yuki Tsunoda highlights qualifying struggles with Red Bull sister team.
Max Verstappen finished fourth in the Monaco Grand Prix, and it’s fair to say the Red Bull driver was not pleased with the two mandatory pit stops during the race. He expressed frustration at the impossibility of overtaking on track with modern F1 cars.
“You can’t race here. It doesn’t matter what you do. One stop, ten stops,” Verstappen complained. “Even at the end, I was in the lead, my tyres were completely dead and behind me it was impossible to overtake. These days, with an F1 car, you can only easily pass an F2 here.”
“I understand the idea behind trying two mandatory pit stops, but I don’t think it worked. We were almost in Mario Kart. Maybe next time we should add parts to the car and throw bananas. Slippery surface!”
The Dutchman made his second stop at the start of the final lap, hoping until the end for a red flag or a safety car: “There was nothing to lose. I had a big gap behind. I think I could have made four stops and still finished in the same position.”
“That’s how it is in Monaco. Qualifying is really important. Normally, when everything goes well, there’s not much progression. If you make a standard stop, you keep your position, and that’s exactly what happened today.”
“I don’t think we had the pace to fight the guys in front, because every time I tried to stay with them, my tyres degraded a bit too much. Fourth place was clearly the maximum we could achieve.”
Yuki Tsunoda stopped on the first lap and again late in the race, but finished near the back of the field, 17th and two laps down from the leaders: “Teams played out the strategies as expected, and if you start from 12th, there’s not much you can do. I need to qualify better.”
A collision with Pierre Gasly early in the race, which led to the French driver’s retirement, didn’t help his situation: “I don’t know if I had any damage but it was okay. Not great, but I was able to finish the lap, so luckily it wasn’t too bad.”
- Discover More>Gasly blames Tsunoda as Monaco crash ends F1 race
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