Red Bull experiences Singapore Deja Vu as Max Verstappen laments 'the worst possible outcome of the weekend'

Red Bull is experiencing a Deja Vu of what happened in Singapore last year as Max Verstappen declared Friday's run as the worst possible outcome of the weekend. Last season in Singapore was the first time the Austrian team was caught on the wrong foot on the extremely bumpy track surface.

A team that built its distinct advantage over others by running the car lower than others was forced to run the car higher. As a result, the Red Bull fell out of the working window and fell back in the pecking order. Verstappen could only salvage a top-five result in the race.

Coming to the F1 Monaco GP, Red Bull was unsure of what could happen with the bumpy track. As it turns out, the bumpy track has caught the team off-guard, with Verstappen at a loss for words when it comes to describing what the issue was with the car. The driver looked a bit despondent, as he felt that the team couldn't bounce back from this setback. He told the media, including Sportskeeda,

“I don’t think I even can describe what is actually going on. It’s just very difficult. It’s not something that I didn’t expect. But yeah, it’s definitely at the higher end of… [it’s] the worst possible outcome of the weekend so far and it’s just very difficult."

He added,

“A lot of bumps and kerbs and camber changes as well on the track and, of course, that is basically impossible to take every time that we go over it. There’s a lot of lap time lost just because the car doesn’t ride it well. That is definitely hampering us at the moment to go faster. There’s also no real clear direction or solution for the weekend to try and solve something like that.”

Verstappen unsure of Imola-like turnaround

Max Verstappen was also questioned about the kind of improvements the team could make to the car to make it more competitive. The team had a similar battle at hand in Imola as well, where the driver struggled on Friday but turned things around with the team and ultimately won on Sunday.

Max Verstappen was not too hopeful that something of that sort could happen because the kind of changes involved in Imola were different from those needed for Monaco. He said,

“Imola was completely different, also different issues that you can solve with setup. These kind of things you cannot solve with setup because that’s how the car is made and designed and these kinds of things you cannot change overnight, so we are stuck with that. We’ll try to make it a little bit better. But I don’t expect any miracles.”

Max Verstappen will be hoping to make strong enough progress, which will propel him to the front. It will certainly not be easy but having said that, count Red Bull out at your own peril.