Ricciardo: "We made a stupid mistake"
Although Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo had been tipped to challenge the Ferraris and Mercedes for pole, they eventually had to settle for 4th and 5th place. A result which does little to illustrate the progress made by the Milton Keynes team on the Rock.
When looking at the time sheet at the end of the last part of the qualifying session, it’s hard to believe that the Red Bull drivers were in contention for pole position on Saturday in Monaco, as the result is similar to previous Grand Prix by the Austrian team, which has often had anonymous performances since the start of the season.
Daniel Ricciardo, 5th (1:12.998 in Q3)
For the Australian driver, the responsibility for his relative underperformance lies in the poor traffic management by his team: « It seemed to me that I had a clear track behind me, I don’t know why we didn’t wait to release me into clean air ».
The former teammate of Vettel goes further and does not mince his words to describe the strategic choice adopted in Q3, where he only improved his Q2 time by 13 thousandths of a second: “Unless it was the end of Q3 and we couldn’t afford to wait, which wasn’t the case in my opinion, it seems that we made a stupid mistake. Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems to me to be such an obvious and basic mistake.”
The Red Bull driver didn’t seem optimistic when facing journalists for Sunday’s race, as the podium doesn’t seem to be a feasible gain for him on the narrow streets of the Principality: « To be honest, the race was today because the qualifying covers almost all the stakes here ».
Max Verstappen, 4th (1:12.496 in Q3)
Unlike his teammate, the Dutchman harbors little regret after the session, where he managed to outpace Ricciardo by about 5 tenths at the end of Q3, stating that he sees this as a rather accurate reflection of the hierarchy in place since Thursday morning: « I’m quite satisfied, it reminds me of what I did last year. I gave it my all, but it wasn’t enough. This result fairly reflects the standings seen since the beginning of this weekend. The Ferraris have been fast in all sessions, and as for me, I did my best, earning a fourth position. »
Qualifying 4th is a great team result, thanks @redbullracing! 👊 I was pushing really hard. This was the best we could do! 🇲🇨 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/A4kovvoVpK
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) 27 mai 2017
The young Red Bull driver notes, however, that his team is heading in the right direction with the development of the car: “We are not the best yet, but we have definitely made progress. However, we still need good mechanical grip, and we need to work a bit more on this issue.”
As for the delicate issue of overtaking in the race, the Dutchman does not rule out “tempting fate.” According to him, the drivers lack perspective in their opinions with these wider single-seaters and stick to preconceived theories: « This is the first time these cars are on such a narrow track, so we have no basis to know what is possible or not. At the moment, we are only expressing theories. »
From our special correspondent in Monaco
