Red Bull boss expected a challenge from Ferrari in Monaco Grand Prix

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner stated that the team expected Ferrari to be strong in the 2023 F1 Monaco GP.

The Italian team's SF-23 clearly has more pace over one lap than an entire race. Since it is extremely tough to overtake in Monaco, Horner thought that Ferrari would perform well in the Principality. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Speaking to Sky Sports, the Red Bull team principal initially explained how difficult the entire race was and how tensed and worked-up his team was. He went on to mention that the team was concerned about Ferrari and how they could be their main rival and said:

“We were on the ropes here. We knew coming here that it was going to be our biggest challenge in the first half of the year here, and the low-speed nature, we thought Ferrari would be the main opponent, but Fernando has been on fire all weekend.”

Fernando Alonso has been excellent in the Monaco GP. Though he was the second fastest in qualifying, he narrowly missed the top spot by eight-hundredths of a second.

Though Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finished third and could have been a threat to both Red Bull and Aston Martin, he received a three-place grid penalty after the incident with Lando Norris during qualifying.

Red Bull had a bittersweet ending to the race in Monaco. While Max Verstappen's side of the garage celebrated yet another win, Sergio Perez had a dreadful race where he finished 16th.

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Red Bull driver devastated after Monaco GP qualifying crash

Sergio Perez was extremely dejected after the 2023 F1 Monaco GP qualifying session. During the Q1 session, the Red Bull driver was slightly distracted by an Alpine coming out of the pits and was unable to control the RB19's speed into turn one. He eventually lost the rear of the car and smashed it into the barriers.

After the session, the Mexican expressed his emotions to Sky Sports, saying:

"It's an unbelievable day. I cannot believe what I've done. It just caught me by surprise, just getting the rear out of shape, especially really late into the corner, it caught me out."

"It is a way of getting the lap time out but I just went over the limit. I became a passenger and there was nothing else I could do because it was really late into the corner and I could not cut or get out of the corner."

Perez started the race in the last position and somehow managed to finish 16th, simply because of how difficult it is to overtake in Monaco.