Max Verstappen started the Monaco Grand Prix from fourth place, but just like last year, he couldn’t move up the order. After settling in behind Oscar Piastri’s McLaren early on, he tried to stretch out his first stint on tyres, hoping to benefit later in the race. Unfortunately, the strategy didn’t work out.

With a comfortable gap behind to Lewis Hamilton, Red Bull decided to roll the dice. Verstappen stayed out as long as possible, hoping a Safety Car or red flag would give him a chance to gain positions. But there were no race interruptions, and he had to pit near the end, finishing where he started.

Speaking after the race, Verstappen didn’t hold back in his thoughts on Monaco’s famous street circuit. “You can’t race here, it doesn’t matter what you do, one stop, 10 stops,” he told Sky Sports F1.

“Even at the end, I was in the lead, my tyres were completely gone and you still can’t pass.”

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He even joked that Formula 1 was starting to feel like a video game. “Nowadays, with an F1 car, you can just pass an F2 car around here. I get it, but I don’t think it’s worked; we were almost doing Mario Kart,” he laughed.

“Then we have to install bits on the car and maybe you can throw bananas around! Slippery surface!”

Despite the lack of action, Verstappen said he didn’t regret Red Bull’s bold strategy. “Yeah, we had nothing to lose; we had a big gap behind,” he explained.

“When I heard it was like 45, 50 seconds or something…you can pit, of course, and you just drive by yourself. Or you just hope that something happens and you get lucky. But that didn’t come the whole time, [and] my emotions were very neutral.”

Reflecting on the weekend overall, Verstappen remained calm: “I think, considering our pace the whole weekend, we did a good job. I think, as a team, of course, we were never happy with it before, but we also have to accept our limitations with the car.”