(Motorsport-Total.com) – The Monaco Grand Prix (full race report) ended for Red Bull driver Max Verstappen after just a few meters: Shortly after the start lights went out, the power unit in the RB22 failed. The Dutchman managed to get back to the pits, but had to retire from the race there.
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“We have identified what the cause was,” reveals Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies to media representatives, including Motorsport.com, a sister platform of Motorsport-Total.com in the Motorsport Network. However, the Frenchman did not want to disclose details about the reason for the failure, even when asked.
The first signs that something was wrong with the Red Bull engine appeared even before the start. “The problem occurred during the formation lap and left us no possibility to react,” adds the team principal. “Unfortunately, such things happen.”
Verstappen had difficulty keeping the engine speed in the correct range before the power unit finally failed completely when engaging the clutch. “It was Max’s very first power unit this year, and the plan was already to change it after Monaco,” says Mekies.
Why Red Bull used the old engine in Monaco
The fact that Red Bull did not change the engine before the Monaco Grand Prix is by no means unusual: Because Monaco, due to its slow track layout, places comparatively low demands on engine performance, many teams still use older power units there and only switch to a new engine for the race in Barcelona.
A risk that ultimately did not pay off for Red Bull. “Of course, that’s not what we wanted,” emphasizes Mekies. “We can only apologize to Max, because the performance he showed together with the team to be competitive at this level was exceptional.”
Whether and what measures Red Bull will now take to prevent similar problems later in the season is still too early to say. “But we believe we have understood the root cause of the problem,” the team principal hints.
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Verstappen, who is currently in seventh place in the drivers’ championship, takes the retirement calmly. “If I were leading the championship, then of course that would be extremely painful,” says the Red Bull star. “As it is, it’s a little less bad, but still very annoying and disappointing for everyone involved.”
Now it’s primarily about fully understanding the cause. “Everyone wants to finish every race,” adds Verstappen, who surprised on Saturday with second place on the grid. “I just hope we quickly understand exactly what happened and can fix it for the future.”
Barcelona will be an important benchmark for Red Bull
Despite the retirement, Red Bull also takes positives from Monaco: The pace of the RB22 was good on the tight street circuit, even though Verstappen had jokingly stated before the weekend that he probably needed “a new back” to overcome the challenges in Monaco.
“Max was already strong on Friday,” team principal Mekies also recalls the start of the weekend. “We wanted to find a bit more performance, which we didn’t manage in the third practice session. That’s why we had to look for a different setup point.”
This ultimately even proved to be better than the original setup from Friday, at least in qualifying. However, this can no longer be judged for the race after the early retirement. Verstappen, in any case, only sees the upcoming weekend in Barcelona as a true benchmark for Red Bull’s current performance.
“We were competitive on tracks with many slow corners and few fast sections,” he explains. “The fast corners have been more of our weakness so far, in my opinion. I hope that the adjustments we have made will help. But we don’t yet know how significant the effect actually is.”
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