As Red Bull comes under increasing pressure, Fred Vasseur claims that Max Verstappen is beginning to feel the heat as he makes numerous mistakes.
After the first few races it appeared that we were in for another season like 2023, with Red Bull effectively cleaning up, indeed there was talk of the Austrian team winning all 24 races.
Of course, in the background we had the Horner saga and the speculation over the futures of various individuals within the company. Indeed, as the behind the scenes power struggle continued, design guru, Adrian Newey announced that he was leaving after almost twenty years.
However, over the last three race weekends we have witnessed the opposition closing in, and as drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez voiced their frustration with their cars, McLaren claimed victory in Miami and now Ferrari in Monaco, with even Mercedes looking to have improved.
In recent weeks, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has suggested that out of its comfort zone Red Bull is looking vulnerable, and in the wake of yesterday's race believes the pressure is getting to the three-time world champion also.
"I don't want to draw any conclusions on this weekend, but if you have a look on the last two hours of the weekend, I think Max made more mistakes in the Imola or went out more in Imola than over the last three seasons," he said.
"I think that as soon as they have to push more, if you stay in your comfort zone for the strategy, you don't do mistakes and I think they were in this situation," he added.
One of the main issues with the RB24 is that it is unsettled by kerbs, a problem that Helmut Marko puts down to a correlation issue. However, Vasseur believe there is more to it, as the team genuinely appears to be struggling.
"We just didn't see them," he said, "it became evident because they hadn't been forced to go to the limit. Last year they had a very decent gap that sometimes we were able to fight with them for the quali. But in the race average it was four or five tenths. That means that when you have four or five tenths of difference. You are not really at risk.
"I think it was Jeddah where Max started P9 last year and after three laps he was leading," he continued. "They had this comfort but everything could happen. Even on the strategy that Max pitted in Austria in the last lap to do the fastest lap, it means that on the strategy they had one pit stop of gap. In these conditions, even if you do a mistake, it's transparent. This season it's not the case anymore.
"It's not the case with us, but it's not the case between Red Bull and McLaren because McLaren is closer and from this fight we have to get the best."
However, the Frenchman warned against complacency, believing that the Austrian team will bounce back.
"Now we don't have to draw any conclusion that I think they will be back, they will be back soon and they will be strong," he said. "I'm not considering at all that everything will be easy until the end.
"Canada you have some, it's probably almost the opposite as Monaco in terms of speed and force but you have also the characteristic of the kerbs with a lot of low speed corners, chicane and so on, some corners similar to Monaco.
"But overall we were performing in Melbourne, we did well in Imola, in Miami with different type of compound, different type of tarmac, different layout. It will be tight until the end. I think for sure some cars will fit more with some tracks."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Monaco here.
sign in